KEEPING THEIR TRUST. Mr. J.E. Makgill.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 225, 23 September 1927, Page 9

KEEPING THEIR TRUST.

Mr. J.E. Makgill.

A FARMERS , COMPANY.

REPLY TO CRITICS.

BT FREEZING CO.'s CHAIRMAN.

Vigorous *nd to the point were remarks niade to-day by Mr. J. E. Makgill, directors of the Auckland Farmers' Company, when dealing with somo criticisms that had been made bis company. After pointing;.out that the output was the gfaverijing. factor in freezing rates Y and these could not be reduced beyond -tnepdint at #nidr the sound/ position tmifjfit . be determKaed. MrL WkgiH fiOe^e. ' '■' ' t W • /--.'■. i"t i.'; i - : '.t '

"It Jeeems to us that the farmers of the province have placed a trust in our hands ;I to maintain their freezing company in a sound and efficient manner and be. prepared to meet the' growing demands of these districts as need arose. . they placed •this duty on us and gave us the responsibility of making the needful levy on the produce given us to handle to carry out the trust through our freezing charges. Your directors and executive officers can look back over the- 23 years that have passed since our company 'was started and know that they have carried out the objects and policy .for Which our company was started. There have been mistakes made, but if the history of those mistake* is followed your management will not suffer %ery serious condemnation from fair men; and I venture to say that ; the record, of our company from a business point of s view Will compare, favourably with most freezing . companies, whether farmers ; or proprietary. It must be remembered that we 'have, been called on to find a very large .amount 'of.'"'capital, , far- in , excess of bur ; paid-up capital, -to otter /for the needs I of,, oin\ and developing die- ' tr tets. -and^||p|^^el^^t- : ; ; icptaditionß. It is, Very eafey to seem wise;*fter?ryears of altered conditions and point oufiwhat ; might have ~toeeni£ j Ife4sv-e^SjfV Y iroT" fIW onlooker,. with perfect .knowledge of,, circumstances, U> shout adviw-to the individual struggling, against, adverse currents,, and : to tell/"'tiim that.riie is his: friend, but'in no way conie to Ms; aesistin the struggle, even when in boat provided for %he purpose and paid for by those for whom the straggler is fighting. What • can be. said when f he goes yet further and agrees to yet greater volume being added to the curr rents against which the struggle is being waged ? I would' advise the Meat Board to ponder as to what the verdict of right thinking, men must be in such a case.

'"There is .evidently an increasing volume of produce in our districts, and as yet, with out surplus capacity ,i there seems to be no need for immediate increased capacity being provided. For this reason ■we have done oiir -best to prevent the- unnecessary expenditure of capital in an industry which we have been told, by Mr. Jones and others, h already over-capitalised. Opposition From Westfield. "As yet it is not known whether the extensions at Westfield Works are to be proceeded with or not, but believing that we are likely to receive an increased output of meat products we have made reductions in our rates for beef, mutton and.lamb for the coining season. This is simply in accordance with our usual policy of framing our rates on the lowest basis which we" can see warranted by a survey'of all conditions. We have for some years been watching and. waiting for just the circumstances which now present themr selves, and we have maintained your company in a condition to make it possible to meet those circumstances. We, of course, were relying to some extent to the maintenance of the policy which the Meat JJoard had declared for and which had seemingly the endorsement of the Government. The Meat Board have, it seeins,: altered their policy, and as officially being the representative of , th* .meat producers; have thus/ made it far from easy for the Government to adhere to the previously declared policy.. Still, we can hope that the dangers besetting the frozen meat industry of , the Dominion, which lias 'been kept 'before the Government by the Farmers' Freezing Companies from one end of the Dominion to the other are appreciated ,by t»he Government. ■ : . ' Nearly .All Farmers. There 'has been doubtJthrown publicly on the genuineness oi our company •being a farmers , organisation. We have almost 3000 shareholders, and there are only about .29 wio-are. not actually directly interested in farming.' Include ing all the dairy companies of our districts who are shareholders, it gives the majority of the farmers in the province an ' actual interest in our; company.; JBureJy - there is no company more truly representative of the farmers. I think we can,. wEbh. confidence,: point to the 23 years' history of our company as actual concrete evidence of the genuineness of our policy of remaining .and maintaining a company >fchose first interest is the benefit of the farmers of our 'district." f; ■■