SHIP REPAIRING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15467, 11 March 1921, Page 6

SHIP REPAIRING.

LOSS TO BRITISH INDUSTRY. (Received March 11, 2.55 p.m.) LONDON, March 10. In the House of Commons, Mr. Leslie Wilson, replying to Lord Curzon, said more than 20 British ships had been sent to Continental ports in the last lew months in consequence of the joiners' strike. He could not estimate the loss in wages, but the "direct loss on repairs ran from £SXO to £50,000 per ship.—A. and N.Z.C.A. Dealing with the extent of British ship-repairing that is going abroad, the Glasgow Herald states: There arc few trade union restrictions in other countries, no stoppage of work through stupid demarcation disputes between various "classes of workmen, and the hours are worked to suit the trade, just as they were in Great Britain before _ and during the war. Since the armistice a determination to allow no yard to work more than eight hours per day has prevailed here, and even during the nominal eight hours' work slackness has been shown everywhere —in some places more than in others. This must cease, or good-bye to our previously acknowledged superiority in speed of ship repairing. Even the Spaniard— not usually renowned for energy—boasts with some show of justice that he can turn out repair work more quickly than we can, while China has now one of the largest "ship-repair-ing establishments in the world. Holland has shown herself a keen and successful competitor, and is even now taking ships away from British ports, doing the repairs in about half tho time ; they can be done here with the consequent loss of a huge sum of wages to j our workmen and intensifying the differI ence of the exchange against this country. This successful competition is not achieved by any superiority on the part of Dutch workmen, but merely because they adapt themselves more %villingly to tho circumstances of the times and are content to exceed the limit of an eight hours /lay even when established by law. Germany also is waking up, and, with her unwanted warship docks turned into merchant ship repairing docks, i she threatens to be a serious competitor'.