SHIPPING MERGER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1727, 19 June 1917, Page 3

SHIPPING MERGER.

A MINISTER’S VIEWS. (TOVE 1 1 N.MEXT IXTERPOSITIOX SUGGESTED. A statement Ims been made by the .Minister lor Internal Affairs (Hon. G. \V. Russell) regarding the proposed merger of* the Union Steamship Company with the I*. and 0, Company. The .Minister suggests that the Government may interpose in an endeavour to prevent the completion of the transaction. The proposal, he states, comes as a bolt I'roni the blue in view of previous denials of such intentions. It may be looked upon, so far, as settled, since only a small majority of the share;' are held in Australasia, and it is practically certain that the necessary majority was in sight by lh f ‘ promoters of the fusion. Clear!v, the promoters had an idea of what the people and Parliament of Now Zealand might think, and they had rushed the scheme to fruition before Parliament met. Whether I hey had entirely succeeded remained io be seen. Tim Union Company was the Dominion s most nationn! concern, lmill up hy our trade, mail subsidies, and enterprise, and earning Cion,(toil from Die New Zealand Government for war purposes, Was it |o be expected that .New Zealand would lightly stand outside and see ii v, rested fromdiir hands and pass into (ho control of a company which employed Lascars, coolies, and Chinese for the manning of its ships? Recently several of: the largest vessels had had their vegis- | ,'v rimo'sed from Xew Zealand to London, the r;anon argeu being in--n.-am-c imili.■ -os. 1 ‘ i hen wli be no further eimm.-e- of regi-dry, ...■■id G;,-- dins -r. "whom I bold piv-ent oi'jicsU The purer,n .wire wa cl I J ■■nice lon, apart IVoin assets oilier I ban 'teamen-. To him it appeared so line and proliiahle a purchase by a leviathan eompnny Dial New Zealanders must regard the passing of the company Demi our hands with feelings of aversion and anxiety, not nmnixed with envy. Cl LA M DEW OU COMMERCE PROTESTS. ('hrisieliureli, dune .18. At a meet mg of the conned of the (’anterbur'y Chamber of Commerce to-day, the following resolution was passed -“Thai; l ids council views with profound alarm the attempt now being made to transfer the grealest shipping industry in Xew Zealand to a control not responsible to [lie people of this Dominion, and that the Government be urged to use all Die means in its power to prevent the acquisition, virtual or olli(rwise, of the business of the Union Slmim Ship Company of Xew Zealand. by the I’, and O. Company of Driiain, and fni'lber to lake etlieient slops Pi prevent the coni rot of any oilier essential •industry of Xew Zealand passing ouiside Die iiillu- < nee id' its people..’’