SHIPPING FACILITIES.

North Otago Times, Volume CVI, Issue 13996, 5 December 1917, Page 4

SHIPPING FACILITIES.

Although the people of New Zealand from north to soutlr and; east to west are rejoicing in the prosptfets of an abundant harvest, there is yet a very large fly in the national ointment. The future is clouded with grave uncertainty regarding shipping tonnage, available to shift our products to oversea markets. We are absolutely at the mercy of conditions over which oiir Government has no coii,trial. The. basis of our prosperity, find indeed the measure • ofounvar effort, depeiul absolutfely upon the shipping facilities available. Many months ago, when the Commonwealth' Government .surprised the : world by purchasing-a fllcet of /freight steamers, our sleepy politicians regarded. Mr Huglies as t a>ery sliort-sightecV irianr In political- circles in ; Nety, Zealand it was contended that the time was inopporturie'to purcl)&par-

ticularly as such high prices wore being, asked f,or suitable vessels'. Our National Government adopted a "wait and see" policy, arid while other Governments' and big shipping combinations were alive to th« possibilities of the future, pur Government tweedled Its thumb? and trusted to luck. Presently the people of this country were' Surprised to learn that a big shipping combination had reached out its tentacles into the waters of the Pacific and had fastened its suckers on the splendid fleet of the Union Steamship Company. Seemingly everybody in close touch matters, save only our Govenifnent, knew Avhat was going on. ■ A mild protest was raised by the'public, one Minister' threatened to do something heroic, but the" dark forces'' behind ourNational Government prevailed. Cabinet Avent on tweedling its thumbs and the merger was ejected. Contrast the'shameful neglect shown, by .our self-satisfied Gov*' ernment with the vigorous wideawake policy of the Commonwealth.Government. We clip the following extract from the latest issue of an Australian magazine: "Mr Hughes surprised, ami on this occasion gratified, almost everyone: by his announcement that ordered the building of fourteen small wooden cargo vessels in America some five months ago. The first is just about to .be launched,. and all will presumably be soon available. Each i has a-carrying capacity of from 2500 to 3000 tons, and so the entire fleet should be able to shift 40,000 tons of wheat every three months,, from the. Commonwealth. There are at the present moment 3,500,000 tons of wheat in Australia. The previous purchase of the Prime Minister has turned out very Well, thanks to the shortage of shipping everywhere, and it is probable tha,t, from a business point of view, as well as from a national point of view, the present deal will be equally successful. There should be no difficulty now in getting plenty of American goods in Australia before long. The oil shortage should be relieved, and our merchants should be able to get many of those supplies which England is no longer able to send them." .Comment is needless, save but to add that had this country been blessed with a statesman with the breadth of vision and long-sightedness of a Hughes, our Government would not be "shaking in its shoes" to-day lest the finances of this country should be seriously embarrassed by failure to obtain the shipping facilities by means of which we arc able to convert our "abundance of products into the wherewithal with, which to meet our domestic and war obligations.