The Hon. J. G Ward in Reply to Mr Oatway.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4806, 22 August 1894, Page 3

The Hon. J. G Ward in Reply to Mr Oatway.

(To tho Editor W.D. Times.)

Siv,—l nm in receipt of your papei .containing the lector signed "George 'ffi Oativay,Buckeye Harvester Company, Dunedin," dealing with the question of binding twine. As the letter is partly of a political and V partly of a business character, I find it necessary to deal withbothaspccts of it. I would not reply to any of Mr Oatway's comments, "but for the fact that thoro arc others concerned in the matter who are dependent for their living upon the business that Ini is trying to damage. I have neither the time to waste, nor the inclination to carry on a newspaper controversy with Mr Oatway upon tlio subject, and I only deal with this matter now purely in the interests of others. The unthinking may assume that llr Oatway is in this Jfctter moved solely by a'desire to benefit tlio fanner, mid that his motives are philanthropic. I wish 1 cpnld regard them as such. Who is •ill' Oatway, and what does he represent ? Porsonally Ido not know him, but understand he is the New Zealand representative of a number of American, and Canadian manu-) fucturors. He is, amongst other things, a seller of twine, and from all I can gather, adopts the plan of obtaining the highest possible commission or discount, and throwing every possible risk on tlio factory. He represents the Buckeye iieapcr and Binder Manufacturers; he is also the agent I for the Waterbury Watch, for St. Jacob's Oil, nudfor a corset manufacturer, I have no objection to Mr Oatway being agent for these lirms, as many others as he can work ; one atways n the nHHHSRpfikc tlio anon win BHBHfIic lid of the Customs that the Income Tax! by these firms will be colHjj^^Hrctcd." will evidently hit Mr Oatway I ( very-hard. ..Strong representations have been made tb tlie Government upon the unfairness of the present system. Resident lirms having promises here, paying local and general rates and employing large staffs, have now to pay this taxation, while outside firms having only a residentagent here escape. On the face of it this was so unjust to Now Zealand firms, that I have had to propose a remedy. Though these outside firms pay through the Cus- 1 toms in the same way as other importers do, when it c&mcs to a question of collecting Income Tax, their representative is in the position of i being able to reply that he docs not know his firms private nlfairs, mid 1 therefore cannot statu what their i profits are, The result of this is i that in many cases no Income Tax 1 can bo collected. In passing, I may i say that it is very singular that not ■ a word of criticism of the twine business appeared from Mr Otway 1 until after the publication of the 1 Budget. Six days afterwards we find him yelling tlirough the Opposi- J tion press, from one end of the 1 Colony to the other against myself, ' notwithstanding thattliere are others i interested in the twine trade com- I pared with whom my interest in it ' is infinitesimal. I however assume < that he has a grievance against me, 1 and as it appears to bo a public one 1 —a fact which he carefully conceals 1 —he adopts the plan of criticising I my business. It would, in my I opinion, be far more manly and i straightforward for Mr Oatway to i state his real grievance. Since the i appearance of his letters, I have 1 made enquiries as to what the rela- f tionship is between the Pawners' < Company, with which I am coiinec- 1 ted in Southland, and the Buckeye f Harvester Company. I find that 1 very good cause—which I feel prond ,1 of—lias been given to at least en- < gender the strongest opposition from | the Buckeye representative. Our company conducts theMassey-Harris '• Ileaper and Binder Agency. Before J taking up this agency we ut ero offered s that of the Buckeye, anddeclincd it. ' In the Southland district last year 1 127 Massey-Harris binders were I sold-and we are prepared to give 1 tho name and addtas of every i buyer—as against G Buckeye '■ machines Consequently, Mr Oat- i way cannot be expected to be, in a | business sense, very friendly to nic, i for which I neither caro nor blame { him. It is but natural that this I should be so, and I refer to it solely < for tho purposo of bringing out the i fact that his criticisms of myself do 1 not come from an unprejudiced I source, I

I may also liavo given him offence by my strictures in Hie House in 1891 upon tlic book-fiends ivlio had, about time, been liavassing I settlers in nil parts of the Colony. J It was currently reported and I had | in my possession tm official docn-' mcnt in which it is stated that Mr Oatway was the agent in this Colony of the Picturesque Atlas Company. It is therefore possible that he may have a grievance against me on this score also, Now let me deal with the criticism on the twine business. Mr Oatway urges the renewal of the duty of 15 per cent on single llax 'binding twine. Before the duty was imposed twine of not nearly so good a quality as that now being sold was selling at a much higher price than that ruling since the'imposition of the duty. There are now five factories in New Zealand, making twine from natural products, and largely employing labour, and notwithstanding all the assurances of Jlr Oativay, thero was not ono of them that more than paid its way last year. In fact, 1 believe I am correct in saying that one or two of them did not oven do that. Before the duty was imposed the foreign manufacturers selected special agents, they combined at the other end and fixod the price, and judging by what they do in other things, would repeat this again tomorrow. To do so would, of course,' suit Mr Oatway, as a manufacturers' agent, right up to the hilt. l)o not let your innocent readers Suppose thfit this liigh-minded, heaven-bora, zejilouß philanthropist is above entering into combinations. At the present time the Buckeye Harvester Company is a member of the Victorian Iteapei' and Binder Association, trnd of the New South Wales Reaper,

ami Binder Importers' Association. They liftvo, of cotirso, joined both Ihoso associations ontiroly in tlio interests of tlio poor, down-trodden I farmer. Now let tis deal with the local twine companies, their prices, and those of tlio Victorian farmer. In tlio first place, I am not the chief : owner of tlio Southland Twino Co'y. ! I am a shareholder to tlio extent of • one fifth, and took this interest in it under circumstances which 1 am inclined to think Mr Oatway would not have regarded as beneficial to ono. Thcro was in our town ft hard working, energetic tradesman who had started a twine factory on his own account. This factory liad become too heavy for him to manage, and when no ouc else would risk assisting liinv, I did so and helped him through his diflicultics. Wo then at once forced

• down the prico of twine, not only in i Southland, but all over the Colony, i I mention this, not to parade the ■ [net, lint merely tonllirm that the ■ interest i have in that factory was not taken with a view to making a i fortune, but to try to keep going a locally established industry. Beyond interest upon my monoy I have never had a sixpence from it, The management of it has never been in my lmnds, but continues under that of the original owner. I, however, take my full responsibility of everything that has been done. It did not take long to discover that at least one seller of reaper and binders wanted to use the twine factories (o enable him to sell his machines, In other words, to clfeet a sale of a reaper and binder, the firm in question was prepared, as an inducement to a buyer to rcduco twine to consider- | ably below the actual cost of production. This could not go on without resulting in the ruin of the factories. I have never found farmers averse to the policy of" live and let live." They want to be treated fairly, but tliey do not want to live by ruining others, Mr Oativay cites the Melbourne quotations. I hold in my hand a circular dated Melbourne, Rjuly 2nd,lS{)i', signed by the liuekW(i Harvester Company, iinvhich fchey quote pure Manilla at railway ■fcition, Melbourne or Geclong at (id Hr lb, New Zealand llax, Melbourne ROcclong, 4 per lb ; and they Hr if the duty is taken off, that Wr prices for the season 1894 will oe pure Manilla at Melbourne or Geclong, 3d per lb; New Zealand llax at Melbourne or Geclong, 3f per lb. Iu the circular they state "The fact that the sale of Iteapers and Binders to a very large extent depends upon the low prices of twine j constitutes one of the chief reasons for the importers of these machines wanting to sec the price of twine reduced, And as it is clearly in your interest to get yourtwinc as cheaply as possible, we trust you will do all you can to assist in get- ' ting the duty off," Now, they state that the sale of reaper and binders depends to ut very large extent upon , the low price of twine, and consti- i tutcs one of their chief reasons for i wanting to get their twine reduced i This being so, why do tho Iluckeye I Company not purchase (lie local fiie- I tories, and reduce the price of i twino to below cost ? Mr Oatway's | policy is to try to compel the twine I manufactureis to sell to him at be- ! low cost, so that lie may effect sales i or his reapers and binders, |

The Huckeyo Company ]>rofcss that they want to give a concession off the twine. TJioy would, however «t the same time probably extract four times grcator prolit out of the reaper and binders—how chivalrous —to my mind it is just a qnestioii whether or not it would not pay this Colony, ami the Australian Colonies also, to give a sufficient bonus to reaper mid binder manufactures turning out machines in the Colony,it being a condition that a very much lower price was to bo charged, to settlers, 011 reapers and binders than is at present charged. The money involved to settlers in the twine business is but n mere bagatelle compared with what they lisive to contribute for reapers and binders. Still dealing with Melbourne, I would like to point out that last season when wo were sellin? New Zealand twine to farmers jit 'ld per lb., the "Victorian price for it was quoted to farmers in circulars Dt Gd per lb.; and while we were quoting Manilla at 6|d per lb., it was quoted at 8d ( per lb, in Victoria. Now let us como to the position as stated by the Buckeye Harvester Company in this year's circular from Melbourne, "If the duty is removed they are prepared to quote New Zealand llax at 3;fd per lb at Melbourne or Geelong," and Mr Oatway, in his letters to the Now Zealand papers, speciously states, " in other words New Zealand made twine is sold this season to the Victorian farmers at 3fd ex duty (that is in bond) at Geelong or Melbourne, while here at the factory it is unobtainable at nlowoi' price than ■Hi" In this lie is cither wilfully misleading, or is ignorant of the position, or imagines that those to whom lieis writingare very unintelligent. 111 the first place, tho quotation of the New Zealand factories covers outward freight, railage, and delivery to any part of the Colony. It also covers the trade discount to the distributors, Oil the other hand the Victorian farmer has to pay the cost of outward freight and railage from Melbourne and Geelong to jwheroverthe twinelias to be sent, To show how thoroughly misleading Mr Oatway's statement is, I would point out that instead of the New Zealand factory getting 4kl, as ho states it docs, the net price to tho factor}', under the price fixed for this year, is two and live-sixteenths of a penny per pound. Even if tho Victorian fanner could get New Zealand llax at 3fd, "which.of course, he cannot," his Now. Zealand llax twine would cost him just about the sann! price as our farmers have to pay for it, the difference either way being infinitesimal. But as it is, the fact is incontrovertible and undeniable that it cost the Victorian farmer this year, delivered, an average of over 3d per lb. Now, regarding Mr Oatway's statements that the New Zealand factories .must lmvc quoted not 3d along, side the wharf in Melbourne to enable the Victorian dealers to sell at Hjd per lb, and taking his quotation as correct, I would ask what does it mean to the New Zealand factories P It means that tho net price at the factory door here is two-and-seven-eiglitu of a Id per lb, ns against the Iwo-and-livc-sixtcenths which the factory is getting upon the 4|tl per lb price delivered to distributors in I New Zealand.

Under the system of conducting tho twine business in this Colony, every year the factories arc compelled to carry a very largo quantity of twine over unsold. Lust year the unsold balance was some hundreds of tons, representing thousands of pounds in value. Anyone who knows | anything of business at all must re[cognise that it would pay any fac-

). Tory to get rid of tho surplus to li anyone who would tako it at a re--0 duced price, oven at"below cost. 1 Nono of the factories can work full timo or anything approaching thoir 1 output. The surplus' product is of--1 forml oveiywhero. between the i seasons to try to get rid of it at cost f and even below cost, ancl samples . fti'O now in England and Australia E for which a low price would be ; jumped at. Not a factory which i could get rid of its surplus would, I I say, cacry a ton over, if avoidable, i Mr Oatway is prepared to take adi vantago of this and to twist it, to : suit his own purposes into making . your readers believe that an exorbitant price was being demanded of local settlers; and it is remarkable that the Reaper and Binder Association of Victoria,of which the Buckeye Harvester Company is one, quotas thclowness of tho New Zealand prices as one of their strongest arguments towards geiting a reduction in the price of Victorian twine, The factories have to tako comparatively all risk of harvests. As an instance this year, what has MrOatwaydone ? He keeps himself safe; he bus given ail ordor for ten tons of twine to one factory with the option of taking 30, until the Ist November next, That means that the factory, to ho ready for his ordermust make the 30 tons, and he leaves the rest on the factory's hands, and if it does not suit him on the Ist November, he lakes 10 tons, and at the end of the season, if there is any surplus stock, this fair-dealing business man would have the factory (to purchase whose stock, which he will not run the risk of) keep this twine stacked up for another 12 months; and if they force down the price to get rid of it, outside the Colony, he then takes advan-

; tnge of it to misrepresent niul try to ruin the rankers. It will be seen from the foregoing that I strongly question the sincerity of the motives prompting "Mr Oatway I have yet to Iciun that ho has ever tloue any thing in this Colony uf the slightest- lienelit to the farming community. J f he has benefitted them in any one thing let him name it, If lie does want to prove his sincerity in this matter, I now give him the opportunity of doing so, and of doing it in a practical manner, lie contends that the New Zealand farmers are losing thousands of pounds. He says" Taking the average consumption at 300 tons per annum, the cost of tliis twine to me, if I buy for our Melbourne House, would be not more limn £22,100 or probably only £20,533 ; whilst if 1 am buying for the local New Zealand market, ] have to pay £27,027 for the same articles. Can anybody tell me why ?" This is upon a quantity of 300 tons, upon which he says there would be a profit to him on this transaction of £6,4! M, and of course, upon 800 tons, the New Zealand consumption, if his statement is correct, a simple sum in proportion shows that the profit will lie £17,317. I now make 111' Oatway and the BuckeyeHai'vesterCompaiiy the following public offer. If he will undertake to supply New Zealand farmers at 3id per lb - that is -kl higher than lie bases his profitable calculations on—delivered to any place in New Zealand, I will undertake to have handed over to him the Southland Hope and Twino Coy.'s works,for £IO,OOO. This comparatively small amount for'a completely equipped factory, with the flax mills and llax farms, means at 6 per cent only £OOO a year interest, and if Mr Oatway can sua* upon one purchase of 300 tons for his own linn, that o so specifically imme3, £6#l, he will jump at this offer, According to his figures, lie should clear the cost of the whole concern in one year. But as a further test of his sincerity lie can have three years to pay for it, and be could therefore pay for all out of profits according to his own statements. The factory can now produce about 500 tons of twino a year. Jfr Oatway will be able to sell twino at considerably less than the imported article would cost, even with the duty off. He would be able to supply his Melbourne House and he would, in addition to showing that lie is sincere, in the representation he has made, have the good wishes of the settlers of New Zealand, and I am certain the cooperation and assistance of everyone interested in the development of the country. If he is not prepared to accept this reasonable offer, I for one atanyrato will continue to doubt his motives and philanthropic professions. One ounce of practice is better tlianaton weight of profession. Now Mr Oatway stand to your guns; let the fanners see tlmt they have a man of his word to deal with. It is perfectly useless to attempt to fool them, You will find thatthoy arcmuchmore discerning and intelligent than you give them credit for. This was very strongly evidenced in their determined resistance to what they regarded as unfair treatment in connection with the Picturesque Atlas. I should say that if they had from it the refund they arc fairly and honourably entitled to, it would provide them with money for twine for many years to come.

lam, etc., J. G.Wkd. Wellington, 20th August, IBSM,