The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, FEBRUARY 24, 1902.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 348, 24 February 1902, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, FEBRUARY 24, 1902.

MILLERS’ TRUST. Thk proceedings of the Millers’ Trust are naturally regarded with much suspicion, and the increase in the price of bread that has been made in some cities should be sufficient to cause the hearty support of the public to be given to the movement to bring legislative action to bear upon the trust. An “ inspired ” article in the Oamaru Mail contradicted the statement that the Hour was being sent up to Auckland and sold at a much lower rate than in the Southern markets from which it was exported. The Auckland Star thus gives its explanation of the position as a reply to the statements of the Oamaru journal : —The fact is, it states, that about forty Southern flour mills, having formed a combination which would enable them to fix the price of wheat to the farmer and flour to tho people at any figure they - chose, made overtures to. the Auckland mills to join tho Trust. This the Northern Roller Miller Compauy absolutely refused to do, with tho result that the Trust proceeded to adopt coercive tactics, for the purpose of starving Northern mills into s submission, or wiping them out of existence. Rulo 20 of the “ New Zealand Flour Millers’ Industrial Union of Employers," out of which the present Millers’ Association sprang, expressly provides for these tactics. It empowers the Committee of Management, at their own discreliou, to fix prices at an unremunerativo rate. This is an old game practised by trusts and monopolies all tho world over, 1 for the purpose of overwhelming opposition. The combined strength of the Trust is employed to crush any individual competitor. The Northern Roller Milling Company, however, adds the Star, wero determined that they would neither bo cajoled nor bullied into a combination which was inimical to fair trading. They were greatly assisted in their resistauee by the fact that Auckland flour, being made with a mixed wheat in mills equipped with the most up-to-date machinery', readily commands 10s per ton more than Southern flour. Still, so long as the Trust was willing to lose HI a ton on Auckland shipments, the strugglo necessarily became a life or death contest. Remonstrances against the attempt to crush the Auckland milling industry by shipments at a nonremunerative price were ti-eated with derision. The Northern Roller Milling Company, therefore, determined upon more aggressive tactics. Hitherto they have left tho Southern flour markets to Southern millers, together with important districts in Auckland province like the Northern Wairoa and Gisborne. They now resolved on more aggressive tactics, and determined to carry the war into the enemy’s country, even if the contest involved a financial sacrifice. A vigorous and successful effort was made to capture New Plymouth, and a traveller was despatched to place the celebrated “ Champion ” brand in Dunedin and Invercargill. It has been found that the people of the South are in revolt against the 1 machinations of a combination which is directed towards the creation of a ! monopoly over the first necessary of i life, and the intervention of the Northern ] Milling Company has elicited cordial i support from leading Southern journals 1 and from the Trades and Labor Councils, 1 representing the working population. As 1 a further measure, the Star understands 1 that preliminary steps are being taken to 1 establish a mill equipped with the latest 1 modern machinery in Wellington, where 1 flour-milling has hitherto been unrepre- t sented. The capacity of the flour-mills 1 in the colony is now about double the 1 average consumption. The erection of ’ further mills, therefore, is hardly justified, I but unless Parliament enacts a law for ( the suppression of trusts, the only way by 1

which the public can be protected is the establishment of more free mills, and there is, we believe, sufficient independence and enterprise in tire North to save us from a Southern domination of this dangerous character. Meanwhile the effect of the struggle has been to keep bread in Auckland at a penny per 41b loaf less than has ruled for some time past in the very centre of the wheatgrowing districts in the South. But it is not probable that this state of things can be sustained in the present state of the wheat market. Despite the agitation in the South, the Millers' Association has now advanced hour another ten shillings a ton in Canterbury, Wellington, and Otago, tnd as the attempt to swamp Auckland markets by selling at a heavy loss has signally failed in its object, other tactics will probably be adopted. Southern brands of tlour have now been raised J£l per ton in the Auckland market. It would seem, therefore, that the purveying of cheap bread to Auckland workers at the expense of the working population in the South will shortly come to an end. It is time the Legislature gave the Trust a sharp lesson.