SHIPPING SUBSIDIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21358, 6 December 1932, Page 13

SHIPPING SUBSIDIES

Sir, —It was reported in the Heiiat.d of a few days ago that the United Slates Government is to continue (o grant substantial help to the Matson liners, each outward voyage being worth £35,700 in mail subsidy, and the rate of interest on loans not to exceed 2i per cent. How could any British line hope to compote against such uneconomic shipping grants, and why does not our Government take action to prevent the dumping of _ this service upon us ? It was President Hoover's stated ambition that the flag of the U.S.A. mercantile marine should be carried wherever British ships trade, with the result that, nursed by their own Government, they are trying to oust British ships from the carriage of passengers and goods in our own intercolonial trade. Now there has grown up with Now Zealand a shipping company which has been the ad miration of many of the large shipping concerns of the world. Its ships are all built in British yards, manned by our own sea men, provisioned, equipped and over hauled in our own Dominion. In short tin company stands on its own feet, and the above money, amounting to many thousands per annum in wages, etc., is spent in the Dominion. During the war in these and other British ships, 40 odd contingents of soldiers and millions of tons of our finest produce were safely transferred to tho Mother Country, It wab our own ships and our own seamen which braved tho Gorman blockade and won through at a time when it was not all fun for those who went down to the sea in ships. The Matson liners, in trading between British countries, are being granted a privilege which their Government in its turn is not prepared to grant other nations. I contend, therefore, that this service should be put in the same position as foreign goods coming over our wharves • and that a substantial levy be made 011 all freight and passenger moneys taken out of this Dominion. This could be do voted toward starting new services to clif ferent parts of Australia and the Pacific Isles, and so keep our ships busy and give our own men a fair chance of following their livelihood in an even contest. DavKit Jones.