NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16595, 19 July 1917, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE MERCHANT FLEETS.

Discussing the shipping situation, Earl Curzon, Lord President of the Council, recently stated in the House of Lords that taking steamers of 100 tons and upwards, at the end of June, 1914, the United Kingdom and the Dominions possessed 10,124 ships, with a tonnage of 20,523,706. In December, 1916, the total number of ships was 9757, with a total tonnage of 19,765,516. At the end of June, 1914, in the same class of ships, all other countries possessed 14,320 ships, with a tonnage of 24,880.171. In December, 1916, the figures were:—Ships, 13,749; tonnage, 24,002,943. These figures showed that our percentage of the total was, in the first period, 45.3 per cent., and 45.2 in the second. Turning to vessels of 1600 tons gross and upwards, and taking a later period in order to bring the figures within the scope of the German submarine campaign, there were in June, 1914, just short of 3900 vessels, with an aggregate gross tonnage of 16,900,000, belonging to the United Kingdom. This might be taken as more than half the effective tonnage of the world. On March 31, 1917, the number of vessels was about 3500, and the tonnage just a little short of 16,000,000. The programme for which the Minister for Shipping wa a pressing would work out at 3,000,000 tons gross per annum. But if such an output was to be realised it would be necessary to provide an additional . 100,000 workmen, and to double the supply of steel, while allowing at the same time the present Admiralty programme to proceed. Therein lay the difficulty of the case. Government was taking the most drastic steps to acquire merchant ships, by building, by purchase, and by any other process which might be open to it. There was good ground for hope that our mercantile fleet would be superior to that of any other nation at the end of the war.

CONDITIONS IN PARIS. A visitor to Wellington, who has visited Pans during the present year, described the scene as very sad. '• You people here," he said, "are complaining because you are without a few hours' gas daily. How would it be with yon were you to suffer as the people of Paris suffer ? They have been without gas for over a year, and it is many months since the Parisiennes have had electric light. Most of the People use candles or oil lamps for lights, and every evening the windows are double-blinded, so that no ray of light may penetrate the gloom outside. That is because they must give no guide to enemy aircraft. Last winter there was no coal for gasworks or electric powerhouses, nor for the railways other than those engaged in military service. It was a hard, long, cold winter, too. Having no coal —the French coalfields are in the hands of the Germans—the French people resorted to the charcoal stove and brazier chimney to draw off the fumes, but now and again one heard of people who succumbed to the fumee as they drowsed over charcoal fires in rooms that were illventilated. " Few entertainment* are now given in Paris—perhaps a few vaudeville show* to help to entertain the soldiers home on leave from the trenches—no opera, and very few comedies. All families have been affected—some killed outright. But they will fight on to the end. They have the measure of the enemy, and are far from being the poor, decadent race that would be easily overrun bv the highlvtrained hordes of Germany. France has proved that she can meet them and beat them on level terms. It is the spirit of France that is beating the German every time he comes, and so it will be till the glorious finish !"