and cleared at Fremantle and Port Adelaide is out of all proportion to the goods landed and shipped there: External Tonnage Entered and Cleared. State. Commonwealth of Australia Percentage of each State to Total of Commonwealth. Vessels Tonnage. Vessels Tonnage. Vessels Tonnage. 1881. 1891. 1901. 1,672 1,318,377 2,149 2,621,579 2,529 4,519,711 41.6 39.7 38.4 855 852,952 971 1,492,108 1,226 2,650,626 26.9 22.6 22.5 New South Wales Victoria. Queensland 467 South Australia Western Australia Tasmania 284,414 405 426,642 534 699,692 9.0 6.5 6.0 721 1,614,790 15.5 18-2 13.7 883 1,762,943 4.4 8.1 15.0 229 513,967 2.6 4.9 4.4 Total 3,924 3,168,630 4,838 6,601,173 6,122 11,761,729 100 0 100.0 100.0 A comparison between the shipping of the principal countries of the world and the external tonnage of the Commonwealth of Australia is appended : On the basis of population, therefore, the shipping of the states of the Commonwealth exceeds that of the United Kingdom and the great countries of the United States of America, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Spain. TONNAGE IN BALLAST. A peculiar feature of the shipping trade is the small though varying proportion of tonnage in ballast arriving from and departing for places beyond Australia. Thus in the year 1881 this description of tonnage amounted to 5.2 per cent., and in 1891 to 41 per cent., of the total external shipping; while in 1901, at 9.5 per cent., the proportion was comparatively high. The increase during recent years is chiefly due to the larger number of vessels which come to New South Wales in quest of freights, the proportion of shipping in ballast for that state being nearly 13 per cent. of the total external tonnage. The total external tonnage entered and cleared in ballast during the years 1881, 1891, and 1901 was as follows: The reason why so small a proportion of Australian shipping clears in ballast is principally to be found in the great and varied resources of the country; for when the staple produce-wool-is not available, cargoes of wheat, coal, silver, copper, live-stock, frozen meat, fruit, tallow, and other commodities may generally be obtained. Besides, owing to the great distance of the ports of the Commonwealth from the commercial centres of the old world, vessels are not usually sent out without at least some prospect of securing a return cargo. As a rule, it does not pay to send vessels to Australasia seeking freights, as is commonly done with regard to European and American ports. It is strong testimony, therefore, of the value of the trade of New South Wales to shipowners to find entered at the ports of that state direct from outside countries the comparatively large quantity of 505,259 tons of shipping in ballast, the following being the chief countries represented :-New Zealand, Japan, Java, Portuguese East Africa, Mauritius, Cape Colony, Natal, Phillippine Islands. The tonnage in ballast which entered and cleared at New Zealand ports and the percentage of such to the total tonnage of the colony may be seen in the following table. Country. The proportion of tonnage in ballast to the total shipping of some of the principal countries of the world is subjoined : Percentage of Shipping :- Country. in Ballast. Percentage of Shipping in Ballast. The shipping trade of the Commonwealth of Australia and of the Colony of New Zealand is almost entirely in British hands, as will be seen from the subjoined tables, which deal with the total tonnage, both inter-state and external. Although direct communication with continental Europe has been established within recent years, and several lines of magnificent steamers, subsidised by foreign Governments, have entered into the trade between Australia and foreign ports, yet the proportion of shipping belonging to Great Britain and her dependencies has only fallen from 93.2 to 85.3 per cent. during the period extending from 1881 to 1901 : Total Shipping Entered and Cleared the Commonwealth. Nationality. 1881. 1891. 1901. Percentage of each Nationality. Vessels. Tonnage. Vessels. Tonnage. Vessels. Tonnage. 1881. 1891. 1901. The returns published by the various states are not in such a form as to admit of the separation of the purely local tonnage from the other shipping of the Empire, and vessels owned in the Commonwealth are classed in the above table as "British." The number and tonnage of the steam and sailing vessels registered in each of the states of the Commonwealth and New Zealand may be found on a succeeding page. Few of the large vessels employed in the inter-state trade have been built in Australia, and it is possible that the registrations do not represent the whole of the tonnage engaged in local waters. The nationality of vessels trading with New Zealand may be seen in the following table :: Entered and Cleared New Zealand. Percentage of each Nationality. Nationality. Vessels. Tonnage. Vessels. Tonnage. Vessels. Tonnage. 1881. 1891. 1901. The tendency to substitute steamers for sailing vessels, which is general throughout the world, is very marked in the Australian trade. Unfortunately the records of Queensland and of South Australia do not admit of the separation of the two classes of vessels, and this was the case also with regard to the colony of New Zealand until late years. It is not possible, therefore, to show the total increase of steam tonnage, but appended will be found the figures of the external trade of the various states so far as they can be given : The substitution of steam for sailing vessels in the shipping trade of some of the principal countries of the world may be gathered from the following table. The percentage for the Commonwealth of Australia is calculated on the basis of the external shipping of the states exclusive of that of Queensland and South Australia : A comprehensive view of the changes which have taken place since the year 1881 in the class of vessel engaged in the inter-state and the external shipping trade of the Commonwealth is afforded by the following figures: |
