The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1932. SUBSIDIZED SHIPPING

Southland Times, Issue 21895, 22 December 1932, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1932. SUBSIDIZED SHIPPING

Short-sightedness will bless the operations of a shipping line heavily subsidized by a foreign State on the score that it will bring tourist traffic to these shores. When Sir Alan Anderson, at the Orient Shipping Company’s annual meeting, referred to the competition of American lines receiving big subsidies in direct payments and in cheap loans, and enjoying privileges conferred by legislative restriction, he touched a subject that refers not only to the Pacific trade. The aim of the Jones Shipping laws is to develop the American mercantile marine in all parts of the globe, and this means an attack on the British carrying trade, carried on by means of financial aid drawn from the State funds. In a battle of subsidies the wealth accumulated in the United States would overwhelm that available to any other country, and the end would be an American shipping monopoly. People who are tourist mad and cannot see any further than the money they may leave in New Zealand, fail to see that if the British shipping industry is killed or hurt the effect of the injury will be felt by the producers in New Zealand. This development of State-aided shipping is not., confined to tourist traffic and it will not be limited to one ocean service. Once the trade in the Pacific is captured there will be an assault on other spheres, and if this attack is supported by public funds in the same way the British carrying business will suffer, if people who are won over by the prospect of a few tourists coming throw all thought of the larger issues aside and assist in the work of fighting one of the biggest industries of the country which buys our produce. It would be idle to assume that the Jones shipping laws were adopted to benefit New Zealand, and if there is an apparent advantage immediately the Dominion should look beyond and realize that Imperial preference in all things means the support of those people who support us. Certainly it does not mean playing the game of Britain’s unfair antagonist for the sake of tourist traffic.