Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE,MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1899.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8447, 20 February 1899, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1899.

A BOOMING TRADE. Tiie shipbuilding industry of Great Britain is booming (is it has uever boomed before. At the close of the year just passed, every yard in the United Kingdom iva» crowded wit.li work, and many of the largest linns were tinning away orders through sheer inability to meet with the pressing demands. There were about 1,51)0,000 tons of shipping on hand for the mercantile marine of various countiiea and 37(5,000 tons for «;iv purposes, as against an average tonnage constructed in the five preceding years of fiu'o,ooo tons. The total value of mercantile shipping completed in Eutdisli yards during 1898 reached the ciiornnnih tigure of twenty millions sterling, while the co^t of the naval orders, including guns, was probably as much more. The yards never had so much work before by lmlf-a-imlliou tons. After the pessimistic cries that have keen heard sis to the decadence of English manufacturing interest?, it i» refreshing to learn th.it the above ri^'incs lepie.-cnt fully four tunes the tola! amount built m foreign touutrius, a fact which indicates the confidence still maintained in the quality of British shipbuilding. The Germans, however, are keen competitor, and have shown by *nc\i leviathans as tlie Kaiser Wilhelm tier I iiossc that they arc able to turn out mercantile vessels of the highest speed and general excellence. That palatial tteaincr has uotv a, compeer, however, in the new White Star liver OceauiL 1, of 17,000 tons, a

description of which appeared in these columns in n recent issue. ]!ut not alone in the actual industry of shipbuilding does Hnglnml lead the lead, it is in (he possession of ships and dominance of the great carrying trades of the world that, she preserves her supremacy of the seas. While the ten cluet shipping nations increa.-ed their total tonnage from ):>,()<)], 1)00 to Ki.OON.dOO tons between the years ISM) and 1597, the Uritish lOmpirc alone increased its tonnage from Si-M7 HIM) tj 10,1111,000 tons. While the world increased by a million .md a half tons.

Britain increased by two million tons, and she now owns nearly two-thirds of the world's carrying capacity, if not more, for tonnage to day, is a very different tiling to what it was in LSSO, and the new boat's now being built, which, as we have shown, are mostly to liritish order, are \astly superior in capacity to the voxels of twenty years ago. For instance, a modern ."illOO ton tramp steamer, niakniL' four tiijis a year between Ibis colony and London, is obviously e(|iial to l'.i,o: ; f) tons nf -uililig shipping making two trip*. The. prnli.v bilities are, therefoie, that in effective shipping Kngbind onus consllerabh 1 mure than two-thirds of the total capacity, and this accounts for the l.iet so nften noted by traveller-- Hint whatever seaport- in the world you enter, there you will lind the liiitish Hag Hoatingin proud predominance.