THE CEMENT INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1921, Page 5

THE CEMENT INDUSTRY.

RECENT RISE IN PRICES. ALLEGATIONS OF A TRUST. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. Suggestions of the existence of a cement trust were made by Mr. R. Masters (member for Stratford) in the House of Representatives to-day in the course of his speech during the debate on the Address-in-Reply. The member said one of the evils from which New Zealand was suffering at the present time was trusts. The Leader of the Opposition last night had i referred to the oil trust. He did not i know much about that trust, but he proposed to deal with the cement trust. The speaker then proceeded to state that the Golden Bay Cement Company had been purchased by speculators, with the result that the price of cement had risen from £2 3s Gd to £-7 10s fid per ton in two years with the sanction of the Board of Trade, a sanction which, he declared, was never justified, and should never have been given. The effect of this increase in price was to cause large quantities of cement to be impored into the Dominion. The market was flooded, and thereupon the cement trust voluntarily reduced the price by 30s 6d per ton, which proved that the previous increase was not justitted. The speaker quoted the terms of an agreement, which he said the three cement companies operating in New Zealand had entered into between themselves, under which the Golden Bay Company was to be subsidised to dose down its works and so reduce the output of cement. This agreement, he claimed was a restraint of trade, but of this scandal the Government and the Board of Trade took no notice. This restraint of trade was penalising the people and industries in all directions, so there was little wonder there was a shortage of housing and unemployment. In view of what he had said, he claimed that the Government should set up a special committee of the House to inquire into the operations of the cement trust, which was not one whit less dangerous than any of the big American trusts, of which we were so much afraid. Mr. G. Mitchell (Wellington South) regretted the statements made by the ■member for Stratford regarding the cement companies as likely to shake public confidence in the Board of Trade, ■which was said to be cognisant of what 'had been done.