SHIPPING.

Evening Star, Issue 10933, 16 May 1899, Page 4

SHIPPING.

FOUR NEW STEAMERS,

Recent advices from London state that the New Zealand Shipping Company will increase their fine fleet of steamers for the New Zealand-London trade this year by four new vessels of 10,000 tons ?i! c the now steamers—the Paparoaand the Whakatane-are now well forward in the builders’ hands, and are expected to be delivered com P an y * n August next. This addition will give the company an extra 40,030 tonnage cargo-carrying capacity, and the building of four steamers in one year is a record one so far as the New Zealand trade Is concerned, and shows that the company do not intend to spare any expense In providing thoroughly up-to-date vessels for the rapidly-expanding trade of the colony.

_ p*jarles C amp, of Messrs Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia, shipbuilders, has given some interesting details reg irding the relative cost of shipbuilding with his firm and on the Clyde in connection with the proposal to increa-e shipping subsidies in the States. He pointed out that although steel material might cost the same in America as in Glasgow, labor was a still more important factor. Thus, in a ship of 5,000 tons, into which 2,150 tons of steel were worked prior to launching, the metal cost .£13,000, while the labor cost £34, poo—together £47,000. Now. on the Clyde this am unt of material would be worked into the ship for £23,800, and thus the total for the Clyde ship would be £10,200 less. This calculation is based on some ralative rates of pay which Mr Cramp has received from a naval architect. Patternmakers are represented as getting one-half the American rate, which is £3 12s per week; machinists, £3 in United States, against £llss 5d ; riveters, £2 Bs, against £1 7s ; ship carpenters, £3 12s, against £2 ; joiners, £3 6s, against £ll7s ; and so on with other trades, the average difference being that Clyde wages are 40 per cent, less than in Philadelphia. In a recent case, he says, a 12,0'10-ton ship cost in Great Britain for material £177.000, ami for labor £91,000; together £268,000—50 that labor cost only one-third of the tot 1; whereas in Philadelphia the cost ef labor ami material were equal. Thu Ilakuia Mam is a vessel of about 2,000 tons built by Messrs Lobnitz and Co., of Renfrew for the Japanese Red Cross Society. She has been specially designed to serve as-a hospital ship in times of war, and to that end has a large troop deck, with beds for some 300 patients. The cabins and saloons have been arranged to furnish further accommodation for sick and wounded, with the necessary staff of doctors, nurses, and attendants. In times of peace she will be used as an ordinary merchant vessel, and is to run on the ShaughaiYokohama run of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha. The first class accommodation (now for thirtyfour passengers) would theu be devoted to the medical staff, and the second class to the nurses and attendants. The necessary fittings are all on board, but they will be landed at Yokohama, and the vessel will then he available as an ordinary liner, with this distinction, that the accommodation is particularly good. The cabins and saloons are spacious and airy, the fittings of the vessel in good taste and of a cheerful design that could not fail to be agreeable to invalids. There is a fine music sulcon, and a smoking room, with ample means of heating all parts of the vessel by steam; the electric light is, of course, fitted throughout, and the appliances are of the latest and best. Particular attention has been paid to the ventilation and sanitary arrangements of the vessel. As a passenger ship she will be very comfortable ; as a hospital ship going to sea she would certainly be one of the best in the world. She is 314 ft long, 39ft broad ; speed fifteen knots, which would enable her to keep within servicable distance of a squadron ; and has good sailing qualities. The German barque Bellas left Hamburg for this port on April 10.