NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13926, 7 December 1908, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

GERMAN COMPETITION IN SHIP-

BUILDING.

Somk little time ago it was announced that the Greenock and Grangemouth Dock-, yard Company had contracted to build five steamers for the Russian volunteer fleet, at a cost of £360,000. The order wa6 hailed with great satisfaction at Greenock as likely' to provide much-needed work for shipyard hands. It is true that the price, including more than £2000 for extras in respect of each vessel, was very low, and that the acceptance' of the contract certainly meant no profit, and would possibly leave a loss, to the builders. But ship constructors difi* like having their plant idle, and the order, for what it was worth, was doubtless regarded as likely to be useful in tiding things over till shipbuilding improves. In any event, the larger part of the £560,000 would have gone in wages, and would have enabled hundreds of families to keep the wolf from the door this winter. It is now announced that, after all, the order for these five ships has gone to Germany. What has happened is related by iairplay, '", a responsible weekly shipping journal. It appears that the Clyde firm had received a,.

letter accepting their tender, and that everything, including specifications, plans, and details, had been adjusted, : with j the exception of the finance clause. ; This was in process of arrangement, when Messrs. Schichu.ii> of Elbing and Dantzig, whose original tender was over £400,000, and who, are said to have been 11th on the list of tenderers, put in an amended offer, which was accepted. They undertook, it is stated; to build the vessels for the same price as the Greenock Company, but to ask for no payment whatever until the end of 1910, and to require no interest on the deferred payments. It ie believed, say« Fairplay. that the money is being provided by, on. with the aid of, the German Government,, free of interest, ii. order to enable a German firm to build the vessels and to keep the order from going to a British builder. "The German Government," it is added, "apparently considers it better policy to assist German firms to secure orders in this way than to pay out largo sums to make work for the unemployed as our Government proposes to do. It is believed that no British shipbuilder could afford to give such terms as the Germans have done— is actually to build the vessels out of their own capital, deliver them, and allow the Russians to run them for more than a year, and then only receive his contract price without any interest whatever boing charged on his expended capital."

END OF A LONG STRIKE. The engineers' strike is over at last. It began on February 18, and its termination may be dated September 18, when the votes which decided the issue were cast. Thus comes to an end (says The Engineer) a struggle which has lasted for seven calendar months, and has left the contending parties in the- same position as when it began. The men have gained nothing, and the employers have departed not an inch from the position they took tip many months ago. The members of the three unions will return to work at a reduction of one shilling a week on time rates, and five, per cent, on piecework, precisely as they would have done had they accepted the change as the other unions did at the time it was announced. The only article in their favour Js an agreement on th© part of the Federated Employeis to meet their representatives some months hence to discuss the position, and they could have had as good if not better terms after the intervention of the Board of Trade in the spring. The ordeal by battle has justified the employers, and has condemned the men, both for the rejection of the masters' terms and for their contemptuous repudiation of their own officers. But although the strike is at an end, not for many a long day will the bill be met and the wounds liealed, What it has cost the unions is a small matter. The money was their own; it cam© out of their munition chests, and the loss is theirs. The direct losses of the employers are possibly serious, although, in the present state of trade, orders could only be regarded as problematical, and even though absolute peace had reigned, might, never have been secured. The great loss is to the prestige of the country as a whole, and particularly of that north-eastern corner of it where the fight has raged. The Tyne and the Wear, as centres of shipbuilding and marine engineering of the first rank, depend for their welfare very largely upon the foreigner, for British orders alone would not tie sufficient to keep them fully employed. To stand 'well in the eyes of other nations is necessary to their existence. Our shipbuilding and marine engineering firms have, it is true, a fine precedence still over all other nations, but who can doubt that a cessation of work in certain branches for seven months must strike a blow at our reputation, of which rivals will be only too happy to avail themselves? It will enforce the standing disgrace of the safeguarding clause which employers find it necessary to put upon their contracts and even upon the heading of their notepaper: —"The builders accept no liabilities for delays caused by strikes." It will be used for years to come to illustrate the assertion that the dates of British deliveries cannot be depended upon, and it will double :i the ~ difficulties which are now encountered in competing with foreign rivals helped in various) ways -by their own Governments.