SALE OF FREEZING WORKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 78, 3 April 1926, Page 15

SALE OF FREEZING WORKS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —After the wholly mysterious attitude of the late Mr. Massey towards predatory capital in general and trusts in particular, the action of Mr. Hawken in regard to the sale of a farmers' freezing' works to an overseas firm is auspicious, and a distinctly hopeful omen that this country will in future be governed in the interests of New Zealand. It is distinctly encouraging to those -who, like myself, while disliking his party and its deplorable record, are prepared to expect that Mr. Coates will justify the good opinion that is generally held of him. That there is nothing to .be said against Borthwicks makes the Minister's action all the more commendable since it indicates the more clearly the rigidity with which the new policy is to be enforced. Tlie arguments that have been used against the Minister's action are invariably unsound. Those arguments might have been used by any company of NewZealand soldiers during the Maori War in.favour of selling their rifles and ammunition to hostile Maoris for a consoling?: price—arguments showing the greatei 1 -- convenience and usefulness of the money to the soldiers and ignoring the use the rifle would be put to by their adversaries, against the. vendors and their comrades. The obvious general modus operandi of meat trusts is to force small companies to bear losses and become financially unstable, and then to buy them up. The' drastic action of refusing to sanction sales so induced in the first and most manifest duty of the Government. This action ought to- have been taken in the case of the Gisborne works. The next .step ought to be to prohibit the speculation whereby foreign capital (or overseas capital) has been enabled to cripple the locally-owned and weaken firms'. Also to force every freezing works in this country to publish annually a complete list of their shareholders with the number of shares held by each. Likewise full particulars of all moneys borrowed on mortgage or otherwise, showing the real names' of the real owners of money lent—the latter to enable the Government and farmers to judge by what interests the policy of each. ."freezing , company, is dictated or influenced.'There, is much to he said in. favour'of all freezing companies being restricted to their proper functions, i.e., those of freezers and agents only.—l am r ■eto.,i"'■:■■■ 'p;iW. d'CAVENAGtt