SHIPPING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3764, 4 May 1926, Page 17

SHIPPING NOTES.

22,000 TON MOTOR LINER. STATE-OWNED SHIPS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 24. Lord Shaw of Dunfermline, speaking at the annual dinner of the Chamber of Shipping of the United Kingdom, referred to the question of State competition. The industries of the country, he said, appeared to be divided into two classes—that which lived on the State and that which lived for the State. The class that lived on the State was increasing, and ought to be diminished, and the class that lived for the State had at its head the shipping industry. Enlightened opinion in that industry objected altogether to having either State control or State interference. All classes of the British shipping trade, from the most powerful employer to the humblest employee, must consider the interests of the industry as a whole. If tramp freights were no higher to-day than they were in 1913, and if the costs of running were 90 to 100 per cent, greater, then it was clear that afi parties must reconsider their relations not only to outside competition, but to their internal affairs. The industry had suffered in 1925 from uneconomic State competition. All it wanted was a fair field They could not properly compete with an industry which was managed on the principle that its debits would be relieved out of the pockets of the people. Such a system was injurious in its tendency, uneconomic in finance, and inefficient in practice, and it ended in pitiful collapse.—(Cheers.) If all industries were managed on such a principle it would mean not the collapse of one or two, but the collapse of society itself. Subsidised shipping by States was exposing itself as a miracle of inefficiency and loss. The people of Canada, Australia, and America were learning how costly and vain it was to attempt to circumvent the play of economic forces arid to lay a strangling hand on commerce and free enterprise. Sir Burton Chadwick, Parliamentary Secretary of the Beard of Trade, at the same dinner mentioned that the Board of Trade was doing what it could do to get general acceptance of the convention on bills of lad ing rules trd indemnity of State-owned ships In so international a matter as the carriage cf goods by sea, it was clear that the shipowners and shippers must find uniformity of law of real advantage, and U was moat desirable that they should, if possible, abolish the unfair competition of Stated-owned shipping employed in commercial work, while beirg outside the ordinary law as to liability for damage and other matters. He hoped tbe Draft Convention which wes to «ome before the International Maritime Law Conference at Brussels this Eatter would be adopted. It was satisfactory that so many other Governments had signed tho Limitation of Liability Convention, which was designed to put British shipping on an equal footing with foreign, where at present it was at a disadvantage. This week the largest motor ship will leave Southampton on her maiden voyage. .The Asturias, a vessel of 22,000 tons, was built by Messrs Harlaud and Wolff at Belfast, and last week It was open to the Inspection of a number of Invited guests. Not a great deal of Information is being given regarding the engines, but they consist of two sets of eight-cylinder, four-cycle doubleacting Diesel engines of the Harland B. and W. typo, developing an aggregate of

20,000 h.p. The electrical service of the vessel is complete, and there are about 5000 electric lamps on board. It is claimed that the type of engine Is most efficient, and in the long run less expensive. It reduces labour, is saves fuel space, and it obviates the grime and delays of bunkering. A ship of the Astunria’s size would normally carry an engine room complement of about 125. Actually she is to be run by 19 engineers and 23 greasers—that is, one man in place, ordinarily, of three —and their work Is done under much cleaner conditions. This R.M.S.P. liner did 18J knots over the measured mile during her trials. She Is joining the South American service, a route on which the craze for speed is not an obsession. This boat would resemble any ordinary liner except for her two squat funnels, and they are there only for the sake of appearance. The rearmost funnel merely bouses the exhaust pipes. The foremost one is just a roofed-in storeroom, and when one enters it from the boat deck one finds that it has a floor space that many a good dance club would envy. The passengers will never need to use it for that purpose. The Internal equipment of tbe liner is both supmtuous and spacious. Its 17 public rooms are arranged on a novel architectural plan, and those in the first class have a decorative scheme which is tasteful, varied, and bright. Conspicuous among them are the marble-pillared dining saloon, the lofty and richly-coloured social hall, and a winter garden that catches something of the warm romance and sunniness of Moorish Spain. In addition, there is an attractive smoke room, a dreamland of a shildren’s play room, and a gymnasium. The Roman swimming bath, with its broad balcony, has a classic design. By means of a wireless installation the voyagers will, rarely be outside the hearing of a land' broadcasting station, and at any time the music of the ship’s orchestra can be relayed throughout the ship. Two of the lifeboats carry their own wireless apparatus. The Asturias has accommodation for 1780 passengers and crew, among whom not one stoker will have a place. She is the largest boat in the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's fleet, and it is claimed that, by reason both of her powerful motor machinery and the ornateness of her appointments, she will, when she sails on Friday, take her title by right as the queen of the Southern Atlantic. Every detail in her construction—even to her numerous piapos —is British.