SALE OF MEAT WORKS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10415, 5 June 1925, Page 7

SALE OF MEAT WORKS.

COMMISSION OF INQUIRY. ADDRESSES BY COUNSEL. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 4. At the Meat Commission, Sir John Findlay commenced his address on behalf of' the Government. He said he really believed Mr Lysnar would have made a better tragedy hero on the stage than the self-appointed champion of a defunct meat company. Mr Lysnar seemed to have entirely lost sight of a few simple happenings which had led up to the appointment of the commission. In the flood of his verbosity he had failed to find a channel, or any destination. That fatal gift of volubility had led Mr 'Lysnar to acquire an obsession against the Minister of Agriculture, against the Meat Board and Vesteys, in which he had unnecessarily lost all sense of intellectual and moral judgment. Referring to the charges against Vesteys, Sir John Findlay asked if any evidence had been given or led by Mr Lysnar, that could, or would, have satisfied the Minister, or the Meat Board, that the arbitrary and drastic power conferred by Section 7 of the Act of 1918 should have been used to refuse consent to the issue of a license to Vesteys. Surely, he said, the evidence had been all the other way. Sir John Findlay paid a; tribute to the late Mr W. D. S. Macdonald, who was Minister of Agriculture up to 1919. He had held the balance impartially, and the same state of affairs existed when Mr Nosworthy became Minister of Agriculture. Mr Lysnar had denounced Vesteys in strong language, calling them a " vicious trust" and "a concern that was eating the vitals out of the conntiy," but what Avere they to say to Mr Lysuar's own efforts to sell to- Vesteys? It was all a question of money, not a question of principles at all. The inquiry placed Mr Lysnar in an unenviable position. They had the picture of the mendicant who, having advertised Vesteys as the devil, was prepared to .sup With that devil, provided the dish was rich enough to satisfy his appetite. Mr Skerrett, addressing the Commission on behalf of the Meat Board, said that the only charge worthy of investigation was that relating to the sale to j Vesteys. In the present inquiry it was fair to say that Mr Lysnar had not hesitated, without the slightest justification, to impute improper methods to the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Jones (chairman of the Meat Board), Mr Jolly (of the National Bank), and, in. fact, every person who had crossed his path in connection with the inquiry. In Parliament, Mr Lysnar had suggested that there must have been some improper, some corrupt, some sinister influence which actuated the Minister oi Agriculture and the Meat Board. The Government had decided that the matter should bo fully investigated in order that any suspicion might be dispelled. Mr Skerrett described Mr Lysnar s allegation as a personal vendetta against Mr Jones. Mr Lysnar had no desire to serve the public interest. The main purpose, he submitted, was to save the works being sold up and the mismanagement of the works being brought home dramatically and tragically to the shareholders who had invested their money. He asked the Commission to sift the evidence and ask their consciences whether they were not satisfied that Mr Lysnar had no regard for the public interest, but was anxious to hide up the consequences of the most extravagant man•"•ement of freezing works that had! ever happened in the history of any country.