The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4101, 19 April 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1876.

Yesterday was prolific of differences, of doubts, and difficulties. The Harbor Board, the Albion Brewing Company, and the Dunedin Fire Brigade had each its own grievances. Although the first is of the greatest public importance, the other two are not without their significance, as they illustrate the difficulties inherent in the management of public bodies, whether instituted for private profit or the general weal. As for the Fire Brigade dispute with the Corporation, although not an unimportant one,,the principle involved is not of the same character as in the other cases. It is a dispute as to the status of the Brigade in their relation to the Corporation as representatives of the inhabitants of the City. It opens up the question whether the Brigade, as a voluntary institution, is or is not under the control of the Corporation. The doubts and difficulties of the Harbor Board and the Brewing Company are really commercial questions : the one relating to a large outlay of public money for the prospective benefit of the City and Province, and the other the management of a joint stock company that has only been a few months in existence. The perplexities of the Harbor Board and the Albion Brewing Company, however unlike in their other features, haye this in common: each for success depends upon scientific processes with which the directors are unfamiliar, and which require special knowledge to comprehend. It is a pity that merchants and farmers have not learnt they are not engineers or brewers, and that in matters requiring special knowledge to act wisely they must have faith in those whose life’s education has been devoted to those pursuits. If the point to be determined is one of pounds, shillings, and pence, life at the ledger and the use of interest tables has the advantage. Let an engineer or a brewer show the most economical way of doing a certain work and there should be »»'• ” —* in deciding. But +1 difficulty mercial can 4- ' «aen comes in comconfi •’ -*<» on j and instead of placing --aence in the Wewer or engineer, who in most cases is competent in his Apartment, the directors begin to meddle and then to throw money and time away in muddling plans that, if carried out, would have been thoroughly successful. The Albion Company seems to have been mismanaged in this way. We have no doubt far too sanguine expectations were held out of its enormous returns and profits j and like most jointstock trading and manufacturing companies, in all probability some of projectors and shareholders had their eyes fixed upon imaginary profits arising from premiums on shares, or possibly had snug billets in their minds for friends and relations. We do not wish to scan motives too curiously, for whatever they were, the result, at least for the present, has shown the fallacy of their expectations. We do not think, however, that so far as the balance-sheet is concerned, the Company is in so deplorable a state as to necessitate winding up, if there is a prospect of sufficient business being done. Money has gone pretty freely to a certainty, and if the past is a criterion of what may be expected in the future, the sooner the affair is abandoned the better. The real question for the shareholders now is, what prospect is there of carrying on the business successfully? There is no necessity for - glossing over the difficulties that lie in the way of success, nor the circumstances that should forward it. We will leave out of consideration the production of a good article, which it is to be presumed every competent practical brewer is equal to. With beers assumed to be equal to those of other brewers, the Company has to contend with those who are already in possession of .,™ e grouty, aad who of necess ifc y will not e,ilow themselves to be driven rom the market. In the first instance, tago presented a fine opening for brewing. The climate is suitable, there is good water, and a protective duty equivalent to a large profit. The first brewers had only to contend with the English market, and they did it with success 1 Failure then Was almost impossible. But this very circumstance induced others to enter the field. Like every industry protected by fiscal duties the growth of brewing amongst us has been stimulated unhealthily : the manufacture has grown faster than the market, and brewers now are not competmg m the Colonial market with the Home country merely, but with each other. If ; therefore, no wider field tor consumptionisfound than the Colony, the profit on Colonial- brewed ale must be divided with every new comW .lessened in proportion to the, bidding for trade. As a set off aga’-nst Homo competition shared in by , OUr brewers is the less cost of barley, and in a very short time most probably of hops of good quality. And as a prospective element of success through a widening market, is the proximity of New Zealand to countries not able to brew for themselves, and which, if communication were thoroughly established may be probably supplied by us. But our markets are narrowed by the absurd systems of customs duties in other countries as well as by the infant condition of our commerce, so that wider fields will of necessity'be slowly opened jP* , ears may elapse before large dividends can be realised, filthol3gh in

the natural growth of dopiaud the time must come’Wjjeir the Albßita Company, if managed on sound busineife principles, must pay. It possesses large* pro[*erty of constantly increasing value, which of itself must be taken into consideration before the shareholders resolve upon relinquishing their undertaking. It is, therefore, a question of time as well as management, and it must be left to each shareholder to determine upon whether it is more profitable hastily to abandon it, or to trust the development of its trade and success.