The Hokitika Guardian WEDNESDAY, DEC. 13th, 1922. BRITISH TRADING LOSSES.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 December 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian WEDNESDAY, DEC. 13th, 1922. BRITISH TRADING LOSSES.

Tub English Chambers of Commerce have consistently called attention to the many disadvantages, to use no harsher term, which are inseparable from Government (and municipal) trading in Great Britain. Striking instances proving the justice of this contention—if, indeed, further proof were needed—are to be found in the Blue Book issued at flume recently containing accounts of trading and commercial services conducted by Government Departments during the period ended March 31st., l«jo] and a repent of the Comptroller and Auditor-General thereon. On the farm settlements for ex-Scrvice men there were losses amounting to £43.789 an the farm accounts, and £19.685 on the estate accounts, making the aggregate loss from the beginning of operations to March of last year £94,101. The farm and estate trading accounts for f 920-21 show losses of £4,881 and £| ; 379 results which a special departmental inquiry has shown to be “partly due to inefficient management and lack of control.” Some rather staitling admissions are made in respect of the accounts of the Ministry of Food. Tho loss on the Ministry's bacon transactions from August 1919. to the end of March. 1920, amounted to no less than £7,709.962, and in respect of certain Chinese brands of bacon and lard, which it was intended by the Ministry should bo paid for at £3O per box.” This is a lamentable instance of laxity and inefficiency. The Board of Trade however, are taking steps to recover tile amount of tho excess payment: and ‘‘the two officers primarily responsible for the oversight have now left the department.” Under the Ministry of Food’s regulations for the sale and distribution of condensed tnilk the rate of commission payable was 5s per case to manufacturers and 4s per case to Importers in return for their services as distributing agents. Certain firms who were both manufacturers and importers received the 5s rate on all condensed milk they distributed— involving a large amount, which the T.nw Officers have advised cannot be recovered. With regard to the loss of £143 000 incurred by the Ministry on the realisation of certain cattle-feeding stuffs, it is stated that there had been a “1"mentable lack of piecision. for which it is impossible to relieve the officers of tho Ministry of responsibility,” and a loss of £122.000 on conserved cattlefeeding stuffs is mainly attributable to the “failure of the administrative officer concerned to pass on to the consumer the charges incurred in rescect of the storage and transport of feeding stuffs as directed bv the Treasury.” A most unfortunate result of Government trading seems to have taken place in respect of currants, the recontrol of which produced a loss in 1920-21 of £962.606 on the disposal of stocks valued at £*1,849,767. e.i.f. cost price-—a loss which the Auditor-General was informed was attributable to the condition of the fruit and to an unprecedented fall in consumption. In 191920 a profit of £3,000,000 was made on Australian meat, blit in the following year there was a loss of a corresponding amount, the explanation being that a contractor, to whom large concessions had been made, found it impossible to dispose of a considerable portion of the stock in Continental markets. Other smaller items contributing to the immense sum that the Government have lost by tlieir futile experiments in State trading include £32,839 in the first nine-and-a-half months on the running of the Harrow Printig Works acquired by the Stationery Office, and a deficiency of £8,648 in the operations of the Dugdalestreet Works. The worst of it all is that the unfortunate . taxpayer has to foot the bill of Govern- | moot mismanagement and incapacity.