PROFITS OF SHIPOWNERS

Evening Star, Issue 16351, 17 February 1917, Page 2

PROFITS OF SHIPOWNERS

UROSALT EXAGGERAT E D

[Per United Press Association-.] "WELLINOTOX. February 16

Strong exception has been taken 'bv the local shipowners to the question regardin'’ the profits of shipowners, addressed hv Captain Baldwin to the secretary of the Sea-meir.s Union in connection with his appeals for the exemption of seamen from military service.

In the first place, it is pointed out that the secretary of the .Seamen’s Union is mu, in a position to know whether the owners are making profits or not. It is becoming tho custom to Iranp a!i the shipowners to'gether as a, class which is making exorbitant profits due to war conditions. That some shipowners, mostly neutral, who have been trading particularly in the war zone, may be making large profits is no doubt true, but as regards boats running on tho Xew Zealand coast, and especially the smaller class of boats of this federation, the conditions are worse than before. The shipowners have bet'll faced with largo increases of wages, which have been paid to every class" of employee—captains, officers, ‘engineers] sailors, firemen, stewards, and waterside workers. There have also been ma'nv abnormal delays, owing to the shortage of labor, which mean loss to a ship’s raining power, and trade has been slacker than bet'ore the war, ns nothing in the wav of building contracts or public works is behm earned on. The owners say that there have been substantial increases in the. cost of bunker coal. State coal has gone un 33 per cent,, representing an additional £oso per annum in tho cost of rnmr-m smalt vessels. There have also been heavy increases in the cost of stores and victualling. Tq meet all these there has Vam only one rise in freights on tho coast same the war, and this only an amount ot Is od to 2s 6d per ton. As a matter ot fact the small steamer trade nut of Wellington is distinctly on five down grade. One has only to cast his memoß bade to a few years before the war to realise this. Such vessels as tho Maimapapa, K,iraki, Red Pine, Jane Douglls, -Moc and Ilalciura have been wrecked and have not been replaced. Since dm war started the Stormbivd and the Si„Hi have been lost, and the Arapa-wa hashed soul, and no. vessels have taken their places, .then tnere are several steamers filch as the Huia. Manama. Aororo -’mi Mana. which are laid up owing (o Vhe excessive cost of running. The fa-t that owners pr.-fer to lay their boats up'-provc-s conclusively that there is no profit in the business. The owners' fcd.-ratlon + Go it that the question to be decided bv tho Military Service Board is not one of prontahle working or otherwise, hut simply whether the men arc employed in an essential industry.