MEAT POOL BILL.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1922, Page 5

MEAT POOL BILL.

5 CANTERBURY OPPOSITION. BUSINESS MEN S MEWS. By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. The council of the Christchurch ChamDer of Commerce has considered the Sfeat Pool Bill, and the opinion of the coißcil in regard to the proposed measure is contained in the following telegram, copies of which have been forwarded to the Prime Minister, Sir Francis Bell and Mr. L. M. Isitt, M.P.: •"That this council is of opinion that the Meat Export Control Bill, 1921-22, considered with reference to its preamble and its clauses, is nothing other than a ‘wild cat’ speculation at the expense of the whole population of the Dominion for the wildly speculative benefit of a particular section of persons who have suffered and will suffer no more than any other section from the late war and from the present world-wide depression of commerce. “That the scheme of the Bill ignores qualified and able commercial work and experience over a long series of years, and well-tried and continually-improving channels of commerce, and places the finance and preparation and transport and storage nd marketing of meat for export in the hands of an entirely irresponsible board, representative solely of persons altogether unqualified in any of the operations which are performed from the point of sale or delivery of live stock at the farm or yards in New Zealand to the point of-sale of the meat to the retailers at the other side of the world.

“Moreover, the scheme is pure revolutionary syndicalism, in that it gives to an irresponsible board absolute power to seize and dispose of the property, and to destroy established businesses of persons who have no voice in its appointment; that such a scheme, so conceived and so managed, both within its own extent and as an immediate precedent for similar others, >s foredoomed to such failure as will involve the whole Dominion in disaster, both financially and to its commercial and political reputation, at a time when sound sense and sound methods are evermore becoming imperatively necessary.” DUNEDIN OBJECTIONS. PRINCIPLE NOT APPROVED. Dunedin, Last Night. The following telegram on the subject of the Meat Export Bill has been forwarded to the Premier and Sir Francis Bell: “The executive of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, having considered the Meat Export Bill, respectfully submits: “(1) That State guarantees against loss are wrong in principle and unfair to taxpayers generally. “(2) That if, nevertheless, the Bill is persisted in some specific charge should be provided in clause seventeen for the State guarantee. The rate of interest of advances should be fixed at a percentage higher than the cost of Treasury bills, and the extent of the issue of Treasury bills limited. > • “(3) That the measure as proposed formv* a most dangerous precedent, and if passed should be subject to annual review by parliament.”