The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1916. THE BOARD OF TRADE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 157, 6 July 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1916. THE BOARD OF TRADE.

(With which is incorporated The Tal bape Post and Waimarino News.)

The establishment (rf a Board of Trade in this country has turned out to be nothing more nor less than an addition to the list of committees, commissions, enquiries and boards for which the Massey Government will, in the future, as well, as in the present, be i:oted. Whenever any member of Parliament draws attention in the House to eases of obvious trading extortion, the Premier has not heard of it; knows nothing about it, but it seems to him, he says, that it is a matter for the Board of Trade, and he will refer the point to it for enquiry. In fact this sort of reply has reached a stage when Mr Wilford might justly signify his contempt by his words “nauseating piffle.” The Board of Trade, with Mr Massey’s booming and boosting, and suppression of its reports has become quite ridiculous. Challenged in the House, the Prime Minister claimed that the Board had Saved New Zealand some three hundred thousand pounds in sugar, and two shillings per ton on coal. On what he bases his sugar claim it is really difficult to understand; there is such an absence of evidence that no room is left for comment or discussion, but with respect to coal wo are on firmer ground, and we are prepared to give the Board all the credit that Mr. Massey is so constantly and vociferously, perhaps arrogantly, claiming. How much this saving will benefit the masses is indicated, however, in a statement by a well-educated, intelligent working man, who teits us that he is positive that the coal consumed by the working classes does not average throe tons per year, and this mighty success boasted of actually might save them six shillings per annum. House rents are soaring up, and the Government is legislating in the direction of limitation, but when it is informed that building timber has

gone up at one jump three and sixpence per hundred feet, its leader says it seems a case for the Board of Trade. Whether he actually refers them to the Board or not we do not know, as we rarely hear any more about them unless some persistent member makes himself a nuisance by asking <|iiq(3tions. But what a farce this Board of Trade is; if the Government acted upon the recommendations it does make, it would encourage further good work. The Board says coal can be reduced two shil'Jings per ton; it also reported to the Minister that bread could be sold at sixpence halfpenny the four pound loaf and give bakers a good margin for profit. What has the Premier done, or what is he going to do about this official recommendation of the Board of Trade. It is sheer hum-

bug; the Board is a creation of the Premier’s to enable him to side-track the great responsibilities to the people that, by his persistent avoidance, he shows he is incapable of bearing. One of New Zealand’s leading journalists has written to this journal from Wellington, saying:— ‘‘ The production of the first interim report of the Board of Trade, which bears internal evidence of having been In the hands of the Minister of Industries and Commerce for some weeks, has not aroused a great deal of interest here. The members of the Board have done their part of the business well* enough, showing that the bakers could sell the 41b loaf over the counter with a good margin of profit, at 6-1 d, and recommending that price should be fixed by proclamation, but apparently the Minister is not to be hustled into a renunciation of his free-trade ideas. The figures compiled by the Board, presumably after the closest investigation, seem to leave no doubt about the cost of manufacture with wheat at given prices, but the millers’ representatives and the bakers are protesting that incidental expenses which vary from time to time have not been taken into account, and that the adoption of the Board’s recommendations would leave them without a living wage. Protests of this kind were to be expected, as the silent acceptance of the recommendations would have been a confession of exorbitant profits, but if Mr Massey took his courage in both hands and stood by the Board, doubtless the milling and baking trades would go on much as usual.”