WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 December 1921, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE CEMENT INQUIRY. REPORT OF COMMISSIONER. 1 .SPECIAL TO (IfAIU)tAN. j WELLINGTON, Dee. 2 Though there were more important matters before the House ol Represen-_ tatives on Wednesday none ol teem aroused quite as much interest as did the presentation of the report ol the Acting Chief .lusticc, in his capacity ut royal commissioner, upon the grave al- i legations made by Mr Robert -Masters, j the member for Stratford, against the cement companies and the Beard ol i Trade. The tenor of the report had i been fairly generally .-uuieipated Com the facts disclosed at the inquiry, hut there remained a good deal oi i uriosity j as to the wording of the commissioner s . findings and as to their significance. The House was not kept long in sits- j pense. Mr .lustice Sim having made the issues plain and having hrieiiy icviewed the evidence, preceded to slat" .his conclusions with the indie a! precision proper to the occasion. They were, in effect, that the Board of Trade had not been guilty of impropiicty ~r error of judgment, that the rises in price it had authorised we;o justified, that the companies had not charged unreasonable prices and that the agre - ments between them had not In ill illegal or criminal. RESTRAINT OF TRADE. The lasi finding, of course, had iciercnee to the arrangement b\ which the Gulden Bay Company suspended operations and received a bonus I rom the other two companies when it became obvious that the collapse of the market ill March last had piml.iced conditions which made it impossible lor the tine, concerns to cany oil at a reasonable trading profit. This ai i nngemeiit. the Cotomissiuiict holds, was a last mint ol tiade, hut a reasonable restraint having regard to the interests of the cuil racing parties and to the intciests ut the public. "It was not," the report runs, "made to prevent people from getting cement, or to stifle competition, nr to increase the price ol cement, and was not intended by the parlies to operate to the detriment ol the public in any way.” The Commissioner emphasises Ins point by saying that the price ol cement lias not been unieasonahly high at any lime during the existence o| the agieemenl and that there is no action the Hoard of Tiade could properly lake to disturb the ariangement. Hub ic interests are not suffering and are uni likelv to suffer. I’FBLIC ORIX lON.

So much for the judicial pronounccwient. Public opinion on the matter cannot yet be very precisely gauged, hut hotk inside and outside tile House there is a feeling that Air Ma-teis was badly advised in not allowing himsell lime Pm second thynights betore im-

pugning the findings ol tlm Commissioner. The Minister ol anil Commerce and the Board ol Tiade always are fair targets for criticism, hut a judge of the Supreme Court and the affairs ol private people are n.! to i-e dragged lightly into the ar. na ol political coiurovoisy. No one who iollowe I the evidence adduced at the inquiry at all closely and without bias will dotlbl the soundness ail'd the justice ut th Commissionei’s lindiligs. The older ol reference may have been defective, as Mr Masters insists it was, and the Government may have been responsible for its shortcomings, hut tin- e arc matters with which Mr Justice Sim had nothing whatever to do. As for the suggestion that the Minister had Keen influenced in his attitude towards the companies by his ]>orsona! concern lor some of their shareholders, this was

altogether outside the rules of the same and naturally provoked a retort in kind. BENEATH THE SI’RFACE.

Ol com sc there were ports ol the veport that lent t homsolvo-. to pir!uu>-qm treatment. The ('onnnissioner’s nic. distinction between proper a ltd iniproper restraints of tratio, lor instance, ns so subtle that one was left wonderine just where the dividin'! line lav. lint so far as the companies were concerned they ap|K'Mi to have emerged from the investigation quite unscathed. The Golden Hay Company. which was made the pivot, so to speak, oil which M, Masters's charges turned, has exprienees many vicissitudes during the fourteen nr fifteen years of its existence. paying only lout' small -dividends during that time, hut its management ill recent yriH's. at ally rate, seems to have been broad based on the best business principles. It was the enormous advance in the price ot coal, while its rivals were able to utilise In dill-elect lie power, which made it the weaker vessel when the present arrangement was concluded. It is tin i p, n secret that this arrangement does not satisfy some of the people associated with the enterprise and that (fuse people are mainly responsible lor the manufacture of the holts Mr Masters has been hurling at the management.