TRADE OF PACIFIC

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 189, 12 August 1931, Page 9

TRADE OF PACIFIC

NEW ZEALAND INTERESTS. FOREIGN SHIPPING LINES. GOVERNMENT ACTION ASKED. Fearing that the entry of heavilyi subsidised foreign steam shipping into the Pacific trade will jeopardise the services now given by British shipping, the council of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, on the recommenda tion of its transport committee, decided at a meeting last Thursday to urge the Government to take protective action. The committc, having given consideration to the entry into the arena of New Zealand shipping of certain foreign lines, recommended that the attention of the Government should be drawn to this development in the following terms: — (1) The Canterbury Chamber of Commerce fears that the entry of heavilysubsidised foreign steam shipping companies into the Pacific trade will jeopardise the services now given by British shipping. (2) Such a result should not, it is considered, be possible while British ships are subject to certain prohibitions and restrictions in connection with trade between the ports of the country where such foreign line is owned. Trading Conditions. (3) It is the opinion of this chamber that the ships of no foreign company should be able to trade between New Zealand and Australia or between New Zealand and certain other islands in the Pacific on more favourable conditions thar New Zealand or British shipping would be subject to between the ports of the country where the foreign shipping company is domiciled, or that country’s dependencies. (4) This chamber therefore requests the Government to communicate with the Governments of Australia and Fiji to ascertain whether they view the position as seriously as it is viewed in New Zealand, and to endeavour to conclude such an arrangement between British countries in the Pacific as will preclude competition by foreign snipping lines except upon terms of equality. Wide Statutory Powers. (5) The Government’s attention is drawn to Section 205 of the Customs Law Act (1908), which vests very wide powers in the Governor-General for the restriction of the privileges of foreign ships in certain cases, with the object of placing British trade and navigation upon as advantageous a footing as trade and navigation of the most favoured nation, and to impose such prohibitions or restrictions as appear to him justly to countervail the disadvantages to which British trade and navigation is subjected by such foreign country. (6) This chamber feels that should the Government determine that the completion of a satisfactory arrangement with Australia or Fiji must be delayed by the interchange of negotiations, that such temporary protective action should be taken as will prevent the position from becoming serious, before remedial measures can be brought into force. lhe report was adopted without comment.