COMMERCIAL TRUST ACT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 167, 2 December 1912, Page 5

COMMERCIAL TRUST ACT.

MR. SKERRETT'S ADDRESS. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Saturday. Cpntinuing his address in the anti-trust case to-day, Mr. C. P. Skerrett, K.C.. said a statement had been made that the merchants had made a profit oi a little under £29,000 in a year. That statement was merely forensic. The whole of the sum was the gross profit, from which had to be deducted expenses incurred in earning the profit. There had also been a suggestion that the Merchants' Association had been lacking in candour. When he said that the Association held its meetings half yearly, and had produced the minutes for March and August, 1911. it would, counsel said, ,be seen that there was no ground for this statement. In reply to further argument, his Honour said tint the Act had been passed to deal with a small phase of the trust 'problem.. The Legislature'had not prohibited trusts altqgither, nor had it deaH with profits or prices, but it had said that certain things wore to be illegal. ' Mr. Skerrett said the statute should be given a restricted and limited meaning, and should be read literally. The definition of a trust would include any company or corporation that carried on the business of manufacturing, selling, or trading in goods. His Honour: But it is not a crime to be a commercial trust, so there is no harm in making this definition wide. JUDGMENT RESERVED. Wellington, Last Night. Judgment was reserved in the sugar case.