D 6-
Last Five Months.-The effect of the war in the Ocean Trade of the port is here well shown. In British Ocean-going vessels there is shown a decrease of 152 ships of 537,790 tons, or 8.5 per cent. in numbers and 14.9 per cent. in tonnage. This would appear to be almost entirely due to the number of large vessels which have been taken up by the Admiralty as armed cruisers, transports, and Fleet Auxiliaries, although there was, undoubtedly, for a time, a partial suspension of sailings. It will be seen that the average tonnage of British arrivals fell to 1,882.7.
Foreign Ocean-going shipping decreased by 601 ships of 1,306,957 tons, or 30.2 per cent. in numbers and 32.3 per cent. in tonnage. Of this, the practical extinction of German and Austrian tonnage is responsible for 27.2 per cent. in numbers and 26.4 per cent. in tonnage, while the remaining 3 per cent. and 5.9 per cent. represent the net result of increases and decreases under other flags. Here I find increases under Norwegian (17.4 per cent. in numbers and 22.6 per cent. in tonnage, compared with the figures for the corresponding period of 1913), and Chinese (4.5 per cent. in numbers and in tonnage), while under the Dutch flag an increase of 8.9 per cent. in tonnage is combined with a decrease of 7.2 per cent. in numbers. Decreases are shown under Russian (64.7 per cent. in numbers and 68.3 per cent. in tonnage), Portuguese (30.5 per cent. in numbers and 20.3 per cent. in tonnage), United States (24.1 per cent. in numbers and 22.2 per cent. in tonnage), Danish (20 per cent. in numbers and 11.1 per cent. in tonnage), French shipping remains constant in numbers but decreases by 25.1 per cent. in tonnage, Swedish, while increasing by 20 per cent. in numbers, declines by 38.9 per cent. in tonnage, and Italian shipping disappears altogether.
The average tonnage of Foreign ships entering has decreased to 1,977.
In the Junk Trade, it will be noticed that there is shown the enormous increase of 3,552 vessels of 355,349 tons, or 54.2 per cent. in numbers and 46.1 per cent. in tonnage. It is obvious that no such a phenomenal alteration can have taken place in the trade since the outbreak of war, but the explanation is simple. Since war commenced, no vessel can enter or leave the harbour without reporting herself, by reason of the Examination service, so that, of the Junks trading with Victoria Harbour, which means about 90 per cent. of those trading with the Colony, we are now able to account for all, which was very obviously not the case before.
7. The actual numbers of individual Ocean-going vessels of European construction entering during 1914 was 825, of which 385 were British and 440 were Foreign. In 1913 the corresponding figures were 791, 361 British and 430 Foreign.
These 825 ships measured 2,155,018 tons. They entered 4,226 times, and gave a collective tonnage of 8,468,609 tons. Thus, 34 more ships entered 221 less times, and gave a collective tonnage reduced by 405,197 tons, an average of 1,833.4 tons per entry.
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