LESS BRITISH SHIPPING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 104, 4 May 1934, Page 5

LESS BRITISH SHIPPING

FOREIGN COMPETITION Received May 3, 8.27 p.m. LONDON, May 2. The annual report of the Mercantile Marine Association states that foreign countries have so undermined all efforts at shipping recovery that optimist'c statements are misleading and will only jeopardise plans under consideration to relieve a much harassed industry. The net shipping income of 1933 was £65,000,000, compared with £105,000,000 in 1930. British tonnage decreased to 27.5 per cent, of world tonnage, compared with 40 per cent, in 1913. Australia’s tendency to increasingly utilise British vessels brought favourable notice. The return of shipping movements at British ports reveals that foreign trade arrivals with cargo in March showed an increase for the ninth successive month compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, the advance in this instance amounting to 5 7 per cent. Arrivals in ballast were 6.0 per cent, greater and departures with cargo and in ballast 3.7 and 7.9 per cent, heavier, respectively. Coasting trade also slpnvcd all round advances. For the first quarter of 1934 foreign trade arrivals with cargo were between 6 and 7 per cent., and clearances in ballast nearly 10 per cent, greater than in the March quarter of 1933.