INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1585, 16 October 1905, Page 3

INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY.

'To the Editor Gisborne Times.)

Sir, —In view of the many and bitter attacks which have been made in the press of New Zealand against our company, we ask the courtesy of a little of your space to present our side of the question. First of all we wish to state that we recognise that this is purely a political mattter, and that, if it suits the people of New Zealand to burden all of their very many producing interests for the benefit of the comparatively small olass 1 who are engaged in manufacturing, this is a matter with which we have nothing whatever to do. In fact, we should not ask the courtesy of your space or enter into the discussion in any way, were the statements made by those who have taken it upon themselves to attack us correct, or even anywhere near correct, but we can hardly be expected to remain quiet under such an avalanche of falsehood and misrepresentation as has been hurled at us. Nearly all the people who are joinin" in this attack against us know little or nothing of the subject on which they speak. They are relying on the truth of a lot of wild assertions which have been made against us in Australia by people who obviously are influenced by selfish motives—people who wish to see imported machinery driven out of Australia purely and solely because they would then have the market to themselves, and could thereby make greater profits. , t , These attacks upon us have appeared in Australia for months, and in such volume that it is quite impractical for us to here attempt to. take them up severally and make denial of them, but we have no hesitation in stating emphatically that 99 per cent of the state- | ments are falsehoods. We wish also to point out that even in this enormous volume of statements against us there is scarcely a word in relation to anything wrong that we have actually done* It is nearly all m reference to the evils which we are going to do at some future time. Surely it is inconsistent with the good old principle of British fair-play to condemn anyone for crimes which it is expected they will in future commit. Yet this is exactly what is being done in this matter at the present time. We have dealt with the people of Australia and New Zealand for nearly

throe years, and we challenge anyone who has dealt with us to show one instance of unfair dealing.

It is possible, however, for us to touch upon some of the statements reported in the press of September 7th to have been made to the Premier by

MrG. M. BWI

Ho states : “If the Trust operations [ are allowed to go on most of the employees of our conoorn will liavo to go, and the establishment will dogonerate intoja littlo’ropairirig shop.” In the abovo Mr Hall is making a positive etatomont over something whiok is to occur in the future, and whioh represents not a fact but simply Mr Hall’s imagination. 1 Mr Hall knows perfectly woll that the competition winch he has thus far experienced from the International Harvester Company has been fair in every respeot, and that its vohnuo has not been sufficient to affect his Company’s dividends to the amount of onetenth of one per cent, and wo emphatically challenge Mr Hall to deny the accuracy of this assertion, and, if he does so, to give concrete evidence to support his denial. Mr Hall then alludes to the evidence before the Australian Tariff Commission that a minor employee of ours foolishly boasted that we were going to knock out the local manufacturers and so forth. ! Wo hold this employee’s affidavit to the effect that he never made the statement that was attributed to him, not any similar statement; but, even supposing that he might have done so, it is extremely unfair of Mr Hall to assume that our Company’s policy would be properly ! represented by the foolish boast of a minor employee, who could not possibly have any knowledge of the company’s policy, or any authority to proclaim same. Mr Hall states we have already put a prico on binder twine whioh made his firm decide to stand down on twine this year.

_ The lowest price we have quoted on binder twine is one quarter of a penny above printed quotations made in newspapers by responsible competitors and if Mr Hall is correctly reported on this subject, then he either knows nothing about the. matter, or his inference that we have cut the price of binder twine is untrue. So far as we are able to learn, Mr Hall’s concern has not handled binder twine for several years, and it would thus seem that in trying to make it appearto the Premier that we were driving him out of the trade in binder twine, he is misleading him. , Mr Hall states that the twine was made from fibres sent from New Zealand. Il is true that all the twine that we have ever sold in New Zealand, or thus far purchased for sale in New Zealand, has been made from New Zealand Hemp. It is also true that wo have bought thousands of tons of New Zealand Hemp to be made up into cordage and sold in other parts of the world. If there is any odium attached to our support of the New Zealand fibre industry, we are quite willing to accept it. In fact we will even add to Mr Hall's charge the statement that we have probably been for several years New Zealand’s largest consuming purchaser of this com* modity. Mr Hall then states that our twine is made up in America. This is purely and simply a gratuitous mistatement. We have never sold or offered for sale in New Zealand an ounce of twine made up anywhere else than in New Zealand, nor have we any intention of so doing. There is not even a shred of foundation for Mr Hall’s statement. Mr Hall then states that he does not suggest that we are making a profit out of our binder twine.

The evident purpose of this statement is to impress the Premier with the idea that we are selling at a loss.

j It seems obvious that if we were disposed to buy New Zealand goods and resell them in New Zealand at a loss, that we must on the whole be doing New Zealand good by so doing, and we are not anxious to deny this imputation on the part of Mr Hall. However, this statement is as a matter of fact in keeping with many of the state' ments reported to have been made by him to the Premier: namely—incorrect. We have not sold or offered for sale a single pound of Binder Twine except at a profit, and we are prepared to exhibit to the Commercial Editor of this paper any documents in bur possession in substantiation of this statement.

Now, we wish to point out that we have been very definite in the statements that we have made in this article.

Mr Hall accuses us of having twentyfive millions capital.

If Mr Hall told the truth to the Premier, we have in this article furnished him with a most excellent ground for a libel case, and according to his own statement we are amply responsible. We therefore cordially invite Mr Hall and the other interested parties for whom he is the mouthpiece to bring action at once to relieve us of a little of this large capital which he so much objects to. If he does not do so, both we and the people of New Zealand will consider that he stands before the public in the very unenviable attitude of a man who, without reasonable provocation, has borne false witness against those who have never injured him or his Company, or in any way treated them unfairly, and whose obvious motive in so doing is not patriot--, ism, as he would lead you to believe, but simply common every day selfishness —in short, an effort to build up his own already profitable business by tearing ours down.—We are, yours raithfully, IN

TERN ATI ON AL HARVESTER COMPANY OF AMERICA. By J. D. BYWATER, Manager for New Zealand.