SHIPPING SHORTAGE.

Colonist, Volume LVIII, Issue 14409, 10 May 1917, Page 6

SHIPPING SHORTAGE.

A SERIOUS POSITION.

COMMERCIAL MEN ANXIOUS

The possibility of a serious curtailment of New Zealand's, shipping facilities, in consequence of the submarine menace forcing the Imperial Government to economise tonnage, is being discussed in commercial circles with keen interest and some apparent anxiety (states the Wellington correspondent of the Christchirch "bun").The export figures indicate clearly, even without information from other quarters, that stocks in store at the present time awaiting shipment are very heavy.

The Acting-Prime Minister has indicated that New Zealand must be prepared for increasing difficulty in tire shipment of produce, owing to the Imperial Government having to draw its supplies of food and other materials from-the nearest ports from which they can be obtained. . . .

A business man who is in close touch with the subject stated to tl:e correspondent that he thought New Zealand ■ ought to be preparing for grave difficulty in moving her produce. "There ', is no doubt at all that New Zealand has been treated very generously in the matter of shipping up to the present time," he eaid. "The Imperial authorities _ control the movements of the available ships, and they have sent ■steamers here when, from a purely business standpoint, it \* ould have been bettor to send them to America or elsewtere. It is true that the Dominion's wool, meat and dairy produce are required, and have been taken 'for Imperial purposes, but we should not forget that the requisitioning was in itself an act of generosity. The Imperial authorities could have made any terms they pleased with New Zealand, since they controlled all, or practically all, the available transport. It appears to me now that ti:e increasing activity of the submarines is going to force "the Imperial authorities to put every ton of shipping to the most effective possible ■■ use, regardless .of all other considerations. That may mean that some part of New Zealand's produce must wait while the ships are' lifting Canadian wl: eat and potatoes, and Argentine beef and mutton. If. a ship can make two trips to the American coast in the time occupied by one trip to New Zealand, then the British Government may feel it necessary to take American foodstuffs in preference to. I New Zealand. It is simply a matter of ! provisionng the United Kingdom in the ! most effective and economical way during the war period. Just how far New Zealand will be affected, I do not profess to know, but the possibilities of tie new situation ought to be realised."