SUEZ CANAL DUES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13336, 27 March 1911, Page 2

SUEZ CANAL DUES.

A question which Sir Joseph Ward has raised from time to time is the lowering of the Suez Canal dues, which are a heavy tax on British shipping in" particular, if was publicly stated the Other day that the steamship fleets, controlled by Si) John Ellerman alone pay over .£300,000 £ year in canal dues. *vith reference to those charges, the Liverpool Steamship Owners’ Association submit some interesting figures for consideration. It is point nd out that Great Britain received las! year in dividends on its Suez Canal shares a sum of £1,056,207, and that it has now obtained £16,000,000 of income from its original investment of £4,000,000 thirtyfive years ago. “This extraordinary return,’’ says the report, “has been obtained from dues which exceed by 100 per cent, the cost of working the canal. These dues are, as to 60 per cent., collected from British ships, and therefore, although the whole of the million received by this country is treated as dividend, it is derived as to 60 per cent, from a. most onerous tax levied on our trade with the East.” When the matter is looked at in that way the case for the shipowner is easily understood. There seems an idea that the subject will be raised at the approaching Imperial Conference. This would be singularly appropriate, since Australia is peculiarly interested in the question. India however, is not a whit lees jkeenly concerned. The ideal condition, of course, would be a toll-free waterway, but at present it seems wholly impossible of attainment.