SHIPPING NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3332, 23 January 1918, Page 52

SHIPPING NEWS.

TIMARU HARBOUR BOARD. The revenue of the Timaru Harbour Board for 1917 amounted to £26,959, as compared with £32,315 in the previous year. In 1914 the revenue amounted to £40,387, and in 1915 to £41,990-the latter being the record total. The receipts have necessarily been affected by the war, as a consequence of which the total net registered tonnage entered inwards fell from 419,200 in 1913 to 208,815 last year. The imports and exports totalled 199.812 tons (a record) in 1913, and have declined each year since then. Last year they totalled 125,987 tons. MARINERS’ LOSS OF EFFECTS. ' The maximum amount of compensation granted to masters, officers, and: seamen who lose their effects on British merchant and fishing vessels through war risks depends upon the rating, and is according to the following scale: —

In the “ shipping sales ” in the September issue of Fairplay the sale was reported of six steamers, aggregating about 50,000 tons deadweight, and averaging nine years of age, to Mr A. Monro Sutherland, for slightly over £ll per ton deadweight. This price marks a considerable fall in the value of tonnage much more than would be justified by tho sale of the six steamers in one lot. When, however, the price is compared with what is being offered. and. paid for foreign tonnage, the comparison is almost ludicrous. For instance, in September last, a foreign steamer of 5800 tons deadweight, built in 1892, and overdue for her second No. 3 survey, was sold for £330,000. If the six steamers above referred to had been sold on the same basis and without taking any account of the fact that on the average they are 16 years younger, they would have fetched about £2.223.000, instead of about £430,000 or £440,000.

Merchant Vessels. Master £100 0 0 Certificated officers, surgeons, pursers, wireless operators ... 50 0 0 Uncertificatcd officers and apprentices 40 0 0 Carpenters 35 0 0 Ratings in stewards’ department above the rank of assistant 30 0 0 Ratings in stewards’ department not above the rank of assistant 15 0 0 Boatswain, donkeyman, quartermaster, etc ; ... 10 0 0 Seamen, firemen, etc ... 7 10 0 Fishing Vessels. Skipper 30 0 0 Second hand 15 0 0 Engineman 10 0 0 Deck hand, fireman, cook, etc. 7 10 0