STATE AS SHIPOWNER

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 62, 19 March 1929, Page 6

STATE AS SHIPOWNER

— A COSTLY GNTERPRESE. (Nineteen Twenty-Eight Committee) AViljh tllie very best of intentions, the State two or three years j ago determined to establish a j steamer service between Now j land and Samoa hi order to facdiate trade between the Dominion and the nearer Islands of the Pacific, and so relieve both the producers and the consumers from then dependeneb upon privrvji enterprise. The experiment now lias had a lair trial at the expense of the taxpavers, the producers and and two high authorities have borne witness to the result, the first of these is . Mr. E. J. Howard, the member for Christchurch South, who gave it as J.rs opinion the other day that “to a very large extent this parrot cry of State interference with business is pure bunkum.” Mr. Howard had discovered one. thousand ami one exceptions to this rule and now he puts his hand on another one, making a thousand and two. “Certainly fault can be found with many of our State enterprises,” says this candid friend of State interference. “Take that last vennre as an example, the New Zealand State ship “Maui -Pomare.” She was built for the Island trade. Private enterprise refused to put on a service between New Zealand and (Samoa calling at} Nine Island en route. So the Government decided to do the job themselves. They ordered a ship to he built, and she is now running between the Islands named. She was supposed to- tarry 10,00* oases of fruit, but she won't. She will only carry 9,000. She was supposed to be fixed with ai Diesel engine, but she isn’t. She lias got what, is termed a semi-Die-sel. (She cost £62,000 and must earn £loo' a day to make her pay. "Well, she won’t do that. She is too small and too slorv to be made to pay. Mr, Howard thinks that if the “Maui Pomare” were put on the Chatham Island run and given a monopoly of the trade she would pay handsomely. That, however, is another story. The second authority is the “New Zealand Herald,” which speaks after close observation and with intimate knowledge. “In answer to the Samoan Investigation Committee’s criticism,” the “Herald” says, “the late Departmental Secretary remarks that the Maui Pomare was built out of revenue, tho implicator being that it would be unreasonable to expect any return on the capital outlay. The use of the term “revenue” is in this case misleading. The actual fact is that a levy of £67,000 (not £54,000 as stated in tlio Committee’s report) lias been made on tho New Zealand taxpayers to establish a State shipping venture that has so far bad a singularly unfortunate record. It lias yet to be proved that the vessel will earn even working expenses for the current financial year at least. The Department forecasted a loss oil" operation of £lO,IpOO, and to that has to fcei added ■additional expenses arising from tho various, misadventures encountered by the vessel, .. . State trading lias failed with Jess fragile commodities than bananas, and State sh,ipowning lias proved a costly experiment in less hazardous spheres than the Pacific Islands, The present venture has already cost the taxpayers of New Zealand a. sum approaching £IOO,OOO. The Islands fruit trade has been disorganised ami the Government possesses a vessel which, even if its mechanical deficieuces can bo remedies, has ■already been proved inadequate to , carry the cargo offering” Here i s another deplorable example of misdirected State enterprise which has cost the country thousands of pounds, and is threat- ) ening to cost it thousands more.