Better Use of Shipping Space

Tonnages of vessels hauling New Zealand's overseas trade averaged 2·3 million net tons a year during the war as compared with 3·0 million net tons in the three years 1936 to 1938. This was a reduction of nearly a quarter in shipping space reaching New Zealand each year. These vessels carried a volume of cargo only 5 per cent lower than before the war. The export cargo was slightly higher and the import cargo 12 per cent lower. As a rough approximation, some 30 per cent more export cargo was put into each net ton of shipping space, while 15 per cent more import cargo arrived in each net ton of shipping space.¹