SUBSIDISED SHIPPING

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 57, 5 September 1934, Page 10

SUBSIDISED SHIPPING

UNFAIR COMPETITION

GOVERNMENT ATTITUDE

COUNTERVAILING SUBSIDIES

NO REMEDY

The view that countervailing subsidies to the high subsidies at present paid to foreign shipping would aggravate tho existing position was expressed by the Prime Minister (the Et. Hon. G. W. Forbes) in a statement to the House of Representatives this afternoon. "It will be recollected," said Mr. Forbes, "that in reply to a question asked by the member for Invercargill. on July 25 last in connection with competition by subsidised foreign shipping with British lines in Australia and New Zealand waters, I indicated that I hoped to be in a position to make a j statement to the House at no distant date. Accordingly, I desire to inform the House that the Government has had before it the representations of tho New Zealand Shipowners' Federation regarding competition by foreign subsidised vessels in the trade between New Zealand and Australia, and after examination of these representations and other information before it makes the following statement: — This competition is obviously uneconomic in character because it is rendered possible by high subsidies paid to foreign vessels. Tho granting of countervailing subsidies at high cost to the public purse would really aggravate instead of remove the fundamental objections to tho present position. Tho Government takes the view that the existence of adequate and efficient local shipping services in tho trado between Australia and New Zealand and the future improvement of such services by the construction of further now vessels will bo jeopardised by a continuance of the present conditions. Tho Australian Government has indicated its concurrence in the foregoing and has expressed its readiness to consult the New Zealand Government with a view to common action for safeguarding the mutual shipping interests of the Dominion and the Commonwealth."