CEMENT SUPPLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 285, 1 December 1928, Page 4

CEMENT SUPPLY.

IS THERE A MONOPOLY? DISCUSSION IN CHRISTCHURCH. Is there a monopoly of the cement business in the Dominion? The question was touched on at the last meeting of the Christchurch City Couneil. Councillor E. R. McCombs asked if the lowest tender had been accepted in respect of the supply and delivery of cement required for the reconstructing of Lincoln Road, the council having accepted the tender of Blackburne, Smith and Co. of £5 19/6 per ton, less 5 per cent, delivered on the job. "They were all the lowest," commented a councillor.

Councillor H. T. Armstrong, M.P., said that of six tenders received only one was in respect of English cement. Each of the five tenderers for New Zealand cement had put in similar tenders.

Councill D. G. Sullivan, M.P.: Great minds think alike.

"Yes, it is an illustration of great minds thinking alike," said Councillor Armstrong. "In New Zealand we have almost unlimited supplies of cement. I can take you to the Auckland and Nelson district's and show you mountains of it, but a few firms monopolise it. It should be taken in hand by the Government It seems to me nothing short of a scandal." Councillor Armstrong added that, seeing there were such large quantities of the raw material to be had in the Dominion, it seemed to him that there was something wrong if cement could be brought all the way from the Old Country and sold in the Dominion at a few shillings per ton more than the local article.