CORRESPONDENCE
WESTLAND’S HONEY INDUSTRY
(To the Editor)
Sir.—“l am alive—a' 5 you?!’ was the startling title of an article by Elbert Hubbard who found that score, of people are dead although they were still walking .abput. For some year, past II have drawn your attention to the operations of the Holley Producers Association, the directors of whici engineered the formation of the Honey ■Control Board, with the result that what promised to be a thriving industry in the year 1924, to-day is, as far as Westland is concerned, dead—although the directors are still walking about. I have from time to time shown that the Control Board’s policy was absolutely iiwrong and was doomed to failure. My .words have come true a.s the directors consider that in view of the Association’s liabilities and the falling away of support by members, that it tis advisable that the company go into voluntary liquidation, and accordingly will submit a resolution to that effect. >
This resolution was ..carried on July 26th at Wellington and confirmed ai Hamilton, on August 16th, 1932. In the first place control WUg doomed to failure because the men who were at the head of affairs . Wete not produce exporters. One was a brick and tile maker, the other was a : chemist, another a schoolmaster. They ignored the fact tljiat supply and demand ruled, the world by attempting fixation of prices. They shipped to only one age~.'L in London instead of direct shipments to all the principal points as well as the Continent. Control was subservient to the interests of the Honey Producers’ Association who favoured a uniform blend of honey. The blending of lioney suffered the same ■„1) as New Zealand standardised •.heese. People who liked a fine grained white honey such as Westland produces objected to eat it when blended with some North Island dark honey. Blending honey. meant melting in a large vat* certain quantities of ' l'igjit and (dark Ik ney to give a uniform colour, thereby killing the aroma and only adding expense. The last balance sheet of the H.P.A. .shows that in the assets, the plant for handling r.oney in Auckland is valued at £438 17s 9d and plant in London is valued at £2,000. This plant'expense is-not required by the ordinary produce exporter who 'leaves the purqhasei 1 . of bulk honey to pack io suit his own requirements- ■ \ ,
To show! the extravagance of the Honey Producers’ Association in office furniture .and fittings after 18 years the above is, shown as .assets at £764 os Sd. [Registration trade . mark . expenses dccdiirtt is .shdwli in. the.; assets at £340 12s 7d; ipre-sUhie tilte refers to .the 'name “Imperial Bee. Holley/ Now tjiat the dompany ifl Iri iiqUidatmrV I wonder who would pay 340 pence fob the name. Again, the advertising nocount, [London, is down at £16,455 ‘l2b 6d as an asset.. How much would this bring ? In the liabilities I see the company owe Messrs C. and E. Morton no less than £87,098 8s 7, and it was only recently we read that Morton’s wharf ra London, containing New Zealand honey, .was destroyed by fire. In 1922 the losses of the company were estimated at £19,557 4s lid. Could this position have been known at the time, then the association would .have been shown to be bankrupt, but the 1923 season’s honey was sold before the position could be ascertained—so the company’s report states. The antierosting .part of high finance connected with this company lies in tuo fact that someone had a brain Wfive resulting in the birth of the Honey (Control 'Board and of course the Honey Producers’ Association in 1924 were appointed as wet nurse. In 1929 the Honey Producers’ Association came to the Government with a request for £9,000 of th© taxpayers’ money, and, wonderful to say, they.got it. I would suggest that the Associated ,Chambers of Commerce ask the Minister of Agriculture to have searching inquiry made into the® affairs of the Control Board. It is admitted that the Honey Producers’ Association was .bankrupt in 1923 but did not divulge this position when they applied for a Control IBoaxd, so that all honey shipped from New Zealand would have to be under Htoney Producers’ Association supervision. 'Since the Honey Producers’ Association has gone into liquidation a new company, comprised of a number of the old hands, has been formed. “I am alive—.are you?” to the possibility of the new company wanting control of the export of lioney. Prior to control coming into force a considerable quantity of honey was pro- | duced in Westland, but last season there was not enough honey produced to supply local stores and supplies had Jto (be procured from other districts. If free marketing of honey comes into force again by the abolition of the Honey Control Board there is no reason why the industry in Westland should not again flourish in our midst. Dwing to tile fire at Merton’s wharf in London, stocks of honey, will be short until next March when the new season’s srop will be available, but unless a rush seta in, local 1 requirements are ample. In conclusion I wish to point out that members of Parliament are not free from blame in passing the Honey Control Act as they were warned what was likely to happen. Evidently departmental advice was followed, and if so, an inquiry would clean up the matter. T, am, etc., JOHN MURDOCH. Boss, Auguct 26th, 1932.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HOG19320827.2.7
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Hokitika Guardian, 27 August 1932, Page 2
Word count
Tapeke kupu
907CORRESPONDENCE Hokitika Guardian, 27 August 1932, Page 2
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Hokitika Guardian. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.