WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 24, 29 January 1926, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

« MEAT EXPORT. LICENSE REFUSED. (From Our Special Correspondent , WELLINGTON, Thursday. Tt was an open secret, long before the j publication of the fact in the news- j papers this morning, that the Meat Pro- i duoers' Board had recommended the j I refusal of the application of the Welling- j ton Meat Export Company for the] ■transfer of its export license to Messrs.! ißorthwick and Sons, and that the new! ; Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. O. j 'Hawken, had accepted its advice. Information of this kind usually is avail- i 'able well ahead of its official pfliubliea- i tion, and for pome days past the atti- I tude of the Board and of the Minister! ;has been the subject of much discussion i land criticism. With the precedent of! ]the (iisborne case before them, both the ; 'Wellington Meat Company and Borth-1 wicks, as t lie great British firm is iisually styled, appeared to have good ground for assuming that the transfer ! would be effected without difficulty, and ; that an arrangement advantageous to 'both tiie contracting parties would be | ; facilitated by the authorities. The j Minister himself has been careful to state in the announcement of his decision that ''it is in no way intended to ireflect upon the conduct of Messrs.; j Thomas Borthwick and Sons' operations! jin the meat freezing and exporting buai- I ness." and in view of this admission; there naturally is much speculation as to what reasons for the refusal have! weighed with the Board and the Minis-' ter. ! ! Probable Influences. ! One of the suggestions offered in ex- ', ;planation of the refusal of the authorities to help the shareholders of the : 'Wellington Meat Company out of their difficulties is that several other meat freezing companies in the Wellington province, co-operative and otherwise.! have protested strongly against an oppor- ; tunity being given to Borthwicka to j iextend their operations in Xew Zealand i ;with the aid of British capital and Rri- ! ;tish business acumen, while the local j companies have to get along as best they j ,can under less favourable conditions. A' I more plausible explanation of the [authorities' desire to keep Home enterprise out of the Dominion is that. realising there are far too many freezing companies in the country, and that a reduction in their number, however , hardly it might press on individuals, , would be an advantage to the industry as a whole, they are ready to sacrifice the shareholders in the Wellington Meat Company for the benefit of shareholders I in other companies. Xo doubt the Board | (and the Minister by and by will give reasons for their decision more explicit I jthan the assurance that it rests "on the I grounds of public policy": but meanwhile they have provoked a good deal I of dissatisfaction in various quarters, and probably impaired to some extent New (Zealand's reputation as a field for the !investment of British capital. ; Bus and Tram. At the meeting of the council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce yesterday, the chairman rtad a letter from i the president of the Christehurch I Chamber in which that gentleman urged J strongly that the Associated Chambers j should not commit themselves to opposiition to the proposed motor bus regulajtions. "I hope we shall not agree," he I wrote, '"to anything which will give these ■omnibus services (which in many cases i are merely pirate services on the established tramway services run by the rate- ; payers) any advantage over these pub-licly-owned services. I cannot see us. < jas commercial men. sanctioning anything j which will put this publicly-owned service, in which millions of ratepayers' ' money are invested, to a disadvantage. ; which will impose heavy monetary loss' lon all the ratepayer-, in order to get the ! advantage of bus services, and ill order ; to allow some ratepayers to make prollts > out of these services." Whatever may ho the general feeling towards these bus . services in Chri.-tchureli, it has been made fairly evident in Wellington that • j the buses, at any rate so far as they serve the suburbs in opposition to the : railways, have come to stay, and that neither costly trams nor still more ! costly railways, are going to drive them j out of business. They represent the ! triumph of the motor over the railed ' vehicle and can be no more suppressed I than were the early railways by the stage coaches. "Absolute Control." I The official report of the proceedings at the meeting of the Dairy Product- ( ontrol Bcuru yesterday indicates that a majority of the members, of the board 'are determined to proceed with the institution of "absolute control" forthwith without waiting for any review of the position by the producers them.-tdves. j''ln order to be ready for the inception !of the control of dairy produce as from 1 August 1 next," the main paragraph in the report runs, "the New Zealand Dairy I Produce Control Board at its meeting 1 yesterday decided to establish branch offices in five dairy shipning centres is at Wellington, Auckland. New PlyI mouth. Dunedin, and Invereargill." !t had been assumed by many of the opponjents of •'absolute control." on the 'strength of statements made by the i Prime Mini-ter. and by the new Minister lof Agriculture, before hi= appointment. ■ that this important step would be nnst- ■ poned till after the constitution of the 'board had bepn reconsidered: but tl , * , iPtory foin<r tire rounds to-day i= to the effect that the Hon. 0. Hawken is not (inclined to interfere with the deter- ! ruination of the board and that th'establishment of "hinping centre-! will not be delKved. This step would entail I the ext>enditure of thousands of pound*. jand would go far to entrench the ex-, !tremi=ts in their policy.