REDUCING COSTS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20088, 18 November 1930, Page 10

REDUCING COSTS.

SUGGESTED CONFERENCE. i ASSOCIATED CHAMBERS' MOVE, j i The suggestion that the Associated Chambers of Commerce should combine with the Farmers' Union in an effort to reduce costs during the period of i'alling prices, rnade to the Stratford Chamber of-'Commerce last week by its president (Mr J. B. Kichards), follows the lines of a remit approved by the Canterbury Chamber and by the Associated Chambers at their recent conference at Mount Cook. The CanterburyChamber, it is stated, would willingly assist in any such co-operation. ' When the question was brought up in the address o£ its retiring president (Mr Norton Francis), the Canterbury Chamber drew up a remit which was presented at the conference of the As- j sociated Chambers, and, with a slight j modification, unanimously adopted: "That the executive be authorised to call a conference, or, if considered desirable, to request the Government to call a conference representative of the labour, farming, commercial, industrial, financial, and economic interests for the purpose of freely discussing the present economic position, with the object of endeavouring to promote the prosperity of the Dominion by suggesting a scheme whereby the costs of government, including taxation, and eosts of production, may be reduced with the least possible prejudice to the workers' standard of living." "Only Too Willing." The conference requested that each delegate should bring the remit before the Chamber which he represented, that the Chamber should forward its individual resolution to the Government, and that it should consider the advisability of calling a meeting of all local Associations interested' to consider the remit.

"In my opinion, the Canterbury Chamber would be only too willing to work in with any Association, particularly one connected with the Farmers'Union, to bring about the reduction in production costs that we are all working for,'' said Mr Francis to a reporter oi The Press. The Farmers' Union, the Shipowners' Union, and the Canterbury A. and P. Association are already represented in the Kural Interests Committee of the Chamber. It is understood that the remit was given further consideration at the last meeting of the executive of the Associated Chambers.