PACIFIC SHIPPING SERVICES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21431, 4 September 1931, Page 8

PACIFIC SHIPPING SERVICES.

Three members of the Legislative Council took the opportunity yesterday, in the course of a discussion on an Imprest Supply Bill, to direct the attention "of the Government to the invasion of the shipping route between Australia, New Zealand, and North America by a United States line of steamers. ■ If it were not for the existence of exceptional circumstances in connection with the advent of this line in the Pacific trade, there would be cause only for satisfaction in its inclusion of New Zealand in its service. Generally, it is to the benefit of a country that it should be provided with competitive services in shipping as in anything else, and the broad highways of the, ocean are, of course, open to navigation by vessels of all nations. But, as Sir James Allen pointed out, the competition of the Matson Line with the service supplied by the Union Steam Ship Company will be conducted on a basis that will be severely disadvantageous to the latter company. The steamers that are at present employed by the Matson Line on the Pacific route to Auckland and Sydney are old vessels, but they are to be replaced as early as possible by steamers of a superior type in the construction of which the owners are actually being assisted financially by the United States Government. Moreover, the Matson Line will be heavily subsidised by the United States Government in its trading operations to Australia and New Zealand. The extension of the line’s service to New Zealand constitutes, in fact, one of the indications of the determination of the United States Government to dominate, as far as possible, the trade routes of the Pacific. It constitutes a challenge to British maritime supremacy in this ocean. It is, however, not only in the respect that the Matson Line enjoys the benefit of State subsidies to a very substantial degree that it is being placed in a position that will make it a formidable rival to the Union Steam Ship Company. • Its ordinary running costs will be considerably lower than those of the Union Company, because the scale on which wages are paid in American vessels is greatly inferior to that in force in the steamers that fly the British flag on the Pacific. Nor is it a matter to be overlooked that under the United States maritime law restrictions are imposed on the trading of British ships in American waters, while no corresponding restrictions are in force in British territorial limits. The scales are weighted in fact, in favour of the Matson Line in every conceivable way in its competition with the Union Steam Ship Company. For New Zealand to talk of reprisals would be out of the question. This country is too small to contemplate anything of the kind. But it is impossible to suppose that it can be an unprotesting witness of a competition so unfair as that of the Matson Line with the Union Steam Ship Company under existing conditions. The Attorneygeneral stated yesterday that the Government would make representations to the Government at Home with a view to the matter being brought by it to the notice of the United States Government. This seems to be the line of action that may most suitably be adopted at present.