STEEL SUPPLIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 53, 4 March 1943, Page 6

STEEL SUPPLIES

DISTRIBUTION PLAN

MINISTER'S EXPLANATION

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this da.y Reasons for the procedure adopted for the importation and distribution of steel supplies were explained by the Minister of Supply, Mr. Sullivan, in the House of Representatives yesterday, when replying to an urgent question on the subject asked by Mr. Langstone (Government, Waimarino). Mr. Sullivan said that 73 per cent of the total steel products coming into the country had to be procured, due to circumstances beyond the Government's control, on the basis of Government to Government purchase. That created a difficulty in respect of the remaining 27 per cent, which was coming from Australia. To ensure co-ordination of.supplies, to avoid duplication of sizes and at the same time avoid shortages of any specific dimension of steel, the Government was then placed in the position of having to control the whole of New Zealand's steel supplies from overseas, including distribution in the Dominion. After the matter had been discussed with the Hardware Merchants' Guild and the Iron Masters' Association, the importers of steel as represented by the Hardware Merchants' Guild, decided to form themselves into a non-profit making company which would undertake the responsibility of distribution, under the direction of the Minister of Supply, continued Mr. Sullivan. This company, adhering to all the controls over the use of steel, as issued from time to time by the Factory Controller, performed the services associated with the wholesale . distribution of the steel in such a way as to leave no importer in any worse relative position than he was before the necessity arose for all steel being bought on a basis of a Government purchase. It was incorrect to say that Steel Distributors, Ltd., was comprised of only 24 persons and that hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of iron and steel had been dispatched from stock without a proper record, he added. All steel distributed from stock within the range covered by Steel Distributors, Ltd.; had been duly invoiced by that company.