MILLERS’ TRUST

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 281, 6 December 1901, Page 2

MILLERS’ TRUST

in the South there is much concern as to the effects oi the Millers' Trust, and some journals are raising strong

protests against it, going so far as to call upon Parliament to interfere so as to at once stamp out the Trust movement. “We fear,’’ says Truth. ‘That the Millers Combine lias sudlv fallen 1 rum grace. It began operations with the positive assertions of its innocent intentions. It was merely going to remove certain evils which had grown up by excessive competition ; to reduce the cost oi distribution ; to arrange a uniform price and regular terms, and regulate the price of Hour with the current price of wheat, and to make a united effort to open other markets, which bv co-operation, could be done more effectually. It was an insidious platform which the millers declared. But the combine was not long in existence before the cloven hoof began to appear ; the price of Hour went up bv no means correspondingly with the price of wheat—and consequently the baker had to pay more for Ins material The Christchurch journal then goes on to deal with the evil of the monopoly. “The baker, it is stated, “has in self-defence, been forced to make a compact with the miller. EE found that the increased price of flour on the one hand, and the increased cost of labor on the other, ran away with his profits, therefore lie lias completed a bargain with the Trust to deal only with ‘that organisation, the Trust in turn agreeing to supply no Hour to anyone else. No doubt such an arrangement will bo very satisfactory to the miller and the baker, hut there are two parties who will hardly view it with the same amount of equanimity. The producer and the consumer, us is usual where Trusts operate, will feel the effect of this unfriendly arrangement. The fanner must sell his Hour to the Trust’s mills at what the Trust conceives to be a fair price, and the latter must buy the product from the baker at what the latter considers a payable price. It is left, therefore, _ to the middleman to decide what is a fair profit for themselves, instead of the producer to say' what he will sell at, and the consumer to say what he will pav. ’ ’ It is added that in the “combine” we have all the essentials of a Trust of the most pernicious character. As to the assurance that the in-ice of bread would not be increased, the reply is given ’ “We were told that the Millers’ Association would not affect the price of flour, but it did. It is absurd to suggest that the compact has been entered into for any reason other than to regulate the market, and give both millers and bakers what tliey themselves consider a lair profit. Consequently it is puerile oi Mr Blake to state that the price of bread will not be interfered with as an argument in favor of the compact. This question is one which affects the public as a whole. Bread is one of the necessi-

lies of life, and the production or bread is now in the hands of a monopoly. We do not want this sort of thing in New Zealand, and it is to be hoped that Parliament will make one more effort to grapple with Trusts before the monster becomes hydraheaded and extends to more of our industries.” Whatever the effects of the particular trust may be, it is- certainly desirable that Parliament should prevent the American system Retting a hold in New Zealand, for we know not the dav that an American millionaire will swoop down and cause ruination to hundreds of Rood business concerns.