CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 205, 11 May 1915, Page 4

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

ADJOURNED ANNUAL MEETING. The adjourned annual meeting of th e Taihape Chamber of Commerce was held in the Fire Brigade Hall last evening, there being forty-two members present. The President, Mr J. G. Oldham, was in th e chair. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed. The chairman said the annual report had been read and adopted at the previous meeting, but there was no reason why it should not be read for th e information of those who were not then present. The secretary read the report and balance sheet which showed a credit of £1 7s.

The chairman said he was pleased to see so many present as it showed tihat Taihape business men were alive to their interests. The Chamber had done good work in the past 12 months. Their finances had not always been in so good a, position. In 1910 the balance sheet showed a debit of £"- 9/9; in 1915 a credit of £1 7/. (Applause). There had been seme misunderstanding about the meeting being (held last Monday, and h e was sorry if anyone had attended under a false impression. On that night the secretary was out of town on public business and it was thouht best to put the meeting off till to-night. At last year's annual meeting there were 27 present, and all promised to becom e financial mem. bers.-but he was sorry to say that only 17 actually joined. It was only fair that all present at this meeting should become financial rjyerntyeifls) At| last general meeting the subscription had been reduced to jhalf in order to secure a larger membership, and if all in the room would become financial the Chamber would be an assured success for the next year. In addiiton to the 42 present, apologies were received from Mr G. Wrightson, Mr MeCormick, Ellis Robinson, A. W. Gardner and Mr R. Smith, M.P.

• The chairman thought it would be a good idea to make up the members' roll at once. Mr Garrett said everyone present was -prepared to be elected, otherwise he would not vote for the election of officers. H 9 proposed that all in the room, who were not already members, be elected. It was indeed a great pleasure to see such a fine meeting. Mr Bray thought every man should have a chance to speak for himself On a show of hand s all present signified tjhejir acceptance of memberiship.

Mr T. A. Garratt said- before nominations were taken he thought it the proper thing that the meeting should place on record its thanks to the retiring officers and committee for the work they had done; they had borne the burden of the day for the

past 12 months, and he proposed that a hearty vote of thanks be accorded to outgoing officers. This was carried by acclamation. Mr St* T -e Beban proposed that Mr J. G. Oldham be re-elected president.Mr Oldhsm declined as ho wished to see —vie rher Member in tib'3 chair. Mr W. McLennan was then proponed V't. p-i-r- 1 , to pr> excused. He said he V" t j f.vi„ ---.-,- p r .7< ; iutepostrs of the "V" -*. heart and for .that reaucn -,.,. ; : 1( . jj. wc-aid he better to get ~,..., ~.y,_n v 0 r lo t tied down to bus! -mj-o ■>-, -;., 4"?.5; He hrrec! that a ~,„n v „ r r, r f or the position :ncc ? Tncnth it was his bounder, duty -, o f r .L r 'ic'- ;■ t!)]? f•" "''■■";'• fr»r 'hat re 11 .?"'"! He did wishh to he nominated. Mr James wns then proposed as '- ~-' : C^~ '■*. He said ho ha*' come tcrnrbt "HJlire to take n pi-'-!? <*- the committee if wanted, but rb VVV-rr idea-of fakiTKY th- H" been an active mraber sometime ba*k but had fallen from grace as he had absented himself latterly. He thought some one else had better be elected president and h e would offer his services on the committee The meeting persisted and Mr James was elected president by unanimous acclamations.

For vice-president Mr Arrowsmith, Dr Harnett, D. Neagle, Mr Bray and Mr McLennan were proposed. The latter said he wo^ldLrather go on the committee. He proposed Mr T A. 'Garratt, but all nominated, except Mr Neagle, declined owing to other matters taking up their time. Mr W. McLennan, on being pressed by the meeting to allow his nomination to stand, accepted the position and was elected by general acclamation. Mr Jennings was unanimously elected secretary and treasurer, and Mr Deakin was re-elected auditor. For the committee fourteen were nominated, and as the result of a bali.ot, Messrs Aldridge, McCormicik, Wukefnan, MeLnuchlan, Parker. Champion nnd De Lautour wore declared elected Tn declaring the result of the balloi th e chairman said that unless the men elected got the support of members tihey could not do much good. They had £ot a very good committee, and they had now a financial memhersh'ip of 56, which was a very good start for the j£ar. Last year he went mtv'tlvo highways and byways to get v,»'V:!bers Bud th'cr /mly 26 were,fco+ I-Ia felt ?.ursf .the sew officerr,

would work well. He then vacated the chair. Mr James, in taking the chair, thanked the meeting for the honour in electing him to th e position. He felt .»«£. sure he would have the support fdf the committee and of all members, There was much good work done in the past and much would b e found to be don e in the future and he would look after the town's interests to the best of his abilitj r , In accepting the jjosition he did not lose sight of the fact that he would have a considerable amount of time to the work the position involved. The committee was a good one, and there were good businessmen who wer e not elected, he thought it rather a pity that they could .not all have been elected. Among the gentlemen not successful to-night were some very good men, end at some future time tjhey would tike

the position and would fill it honourably and well. (Applause). Before they disperesd he would be glad to have suggestions from any member in connection with matters it was desirable - to take in hand. He thought it would be benficial to have general meetings mure often than onc e a year.say, quarterly, or even half-yearly. If members of th e Chamber met quarterly it would afford an opportunity for them to bring matters before the committee and instruct them in what they considered wa s in the interests of the district. Thfe outgoing officers had left finances that wer e satisfactory for the new committee to take over, and he hoped the lead they had given in matters generally would be taken up f in earnest by those newly elected; he also hoped that the old committee would give them all information with

respect to unfinished business they had in hand. The new committee would be glad to have suggestions on matters it was thought desirable the com- ' mitteg should deal with. Mr . McLennan said h e thougbt it was every Wember'js duty to tell the officers, or drop a note to let them know what was wanted. If evlery member would do t|hat they] Avould do a lot of real. good. There was no Tiecessity to wait for a meeting to bring forward any subject, it was in the interests of all that they should se e the committee or drop a line to thenr. about what they thought was desirable should be done. ; Mr Darvill mentioned the Mataroa Road, but as this road was to some extent already in hand it. was decided to leave the question in abeyance. It was remarked that a deputation from the Wangaehu Road Board was about to approach the Government with a proposal tbat the Rangitiki County Council would grant £3OO, and the

Wangaehu Road Board £3OO if the Government would give a pound for pound subsidy, which would give them £I2OO, sufficient to make the road. Mr Oldham said, with respect to

the Taihape-Napier Road, that he had a promise from the Hon. Mr Fraser. that he would send an engineer the route aH( i get all the information' necessary for placing it before Cabinet He thought that directly the Chamber appnoa/Cthed \the Government steps would be taken to have the road put through. There were no great difficulties or verv expensive bridges to make On the other side of the river there were no expensive bridges, and there seemed every prospect of getting the work ■done. The Minister had <o send a man along and have estimates prepared, Mr T. .'V. Garratt drew attention to *h a ipecmrde'-p Main Trunk road. Some vears ago the Chamber, of Commerce -:-roi(jered t]io desirability of having a road made through and particularly 'hat part between Taumarunui and Te rr r -'\ Chamber of Commerce in WjUirgf-cn considered the question .r.d c?.ve the read its support. At '-■"O r^n J - theiv-. no ro?d through, ■;pf! he thought it a very desirable ob-' Tie chairman said he had before him a letter on the subject. Th e makj ing of thi s road was of so much imI portance to th e Taihape district that jit was in the interests of the Chamiber to co-operate with Taumarunui to*'wards having it put through. I would be required: One costing about .£"1500, and two at from £2OOO to £3OOO each. He understood that the only real barrier was the break between Taumarunui and Te Kuiti. A road here was needed for stock, and would b e more urgently needed later on. When the road to Tokaanu was completed for traffic there would be a considerable amount of tourist traffic through Taihape which at present all [went past on the railway. ■ Mr Darvill drew attention tn railway freights between Taihaoe and Auckland. This town had to gst itssugar from Auckland and the it-"way freights were so high that it bid to come down by boats, and as th was only a boat a fortniht, and as t]-" 1 sugar was occasionally left on the ** ,: iarf for some time before being sc ,x on great inconvenience was expert■•-■'eed. As they could only get su<*or fi-om Auckland he thought th e Depavt-ient might make some concessioTt. The chairman siadthev 'l. be sure to meet-with very strong opposition from Wellington. There cc, e—;de to be buisj|nes s ; boiuSac-i + h'at place and Auckland. A + '-tft<- tihxe > such mate's ,oo fb/*e;r. hr* '•-» ■**"' ".on- x "^" 1 " : 'T?r ir. tb- D •■'r>r>'- iL nr:*'". i . for some ~ of = t ec thins:

as sugar that had to come from Auckland, and on that account a matter of this kind migjat receive consideration.

J|s ,there were no furthr suggestions from ntembers present the chairman raised the question of when the first general meeting should be held. At the end of the first quarter he thought it would he advisable to have a meeting, so that th e new committee might give an account of their stewardship. He was in favour of holding quarterly general dpif-.ings of members. THe meeting then adjourned.