CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 231, 28 March 1912, Page 5

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Wednesday. In his address presented at the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce yesterday, the president (Mr. H. C. Tewsley) said that with regard to the proposal of the Taupo Totara Timber Company to extend their present private railway to Taupo, it was a matter of regret that there was not more scope for private enterprise in the matter of constructing semi-public works of that kind.

Another importannt matter dealt with in the report was the urgent need of population. "If," said Mr. Tewsley, "we contrast the percentages of producers in this Dominion with that of distributors and manufacturers of secondary products introduced into New Zealand, a want of proportion is at once apparent." That fact, he held, partly accounted for the high cost per head of taxation. According to Mr. A. E. Mabin, a speaker at the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce to-day, steamship subsidies should be subject to a stipulation limiting freights, Mr. Mabin stated that at the present time freights to America were 50 to 100 per cent, higher than through freights to London, with the result that trade possibilities were killed. Efforts should be made, he urged, to get the Government to insist upon a limitation of freights when it granted subsidies. Mr. Mabin's remarks appeared to meet with -the approval of his fellow members, but the subject was not discussed at length.