SHARES IN MILK COMPANY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26985, 10 March 1953, Page 8

SHARES IN MILK COMPANY

Purchase Out Of Revenue LOAN PROPOSAL ABANDONED No further steps to raise a loan to Surchase shares in. the Christchurch [ilk Company will be taken by the City Council. Instead, it will provide the purchase money out of revenue. The finance committee reported to the council last evening that it had considered the petition presented at the last meeting objecting to the council’s proposal to raise a loan to purchase shares in the company and to buying shares without a poll, but it now desired to reaffirm the recommendation previously submitted: “That the council provide out of revenue the sum of £7500 for the purchase of half of the additional share capital which the milk company is raising and that further payments in respect of the company r s uncalled capital, which the council has agreed to accept, be met as and when calls are made, and that the application for a loan be withdrawn.”

Of the 1386 signatures affixed to the petition, 379 were invalid in that the signatories were not city ratepayers, reported the committee. Cr. C. D. W. L. Sheppard said he objected to either method, which was aimed at the partial municipalisation of milk. A blank cheque was being given, without a mandate from the people. He complained that 379 persons had been disfranchised.

A councillor: They have the option. “Amalgamation,” suggested Cr. M. B. Howard, M.P.

The work could well be done by private enterprise, said Cr. Sheppard. No other councillor answered the Mayor’s invitation to speak. Cr. J. ,E. Jones: We are all converted. Cr. T. H. McCombs said the council’s liability was not undetermined, as suggested by Cr. Sheppard. It was limited to £20,000 and it would be for future councils to decide whether to take the balance of shares. The old set-up had all the characteristics of a monopoly, against which consumers could not stand up. Christchurch owed the producers a. decent living. The consumers were also entitled to a fair deal and this was the way to give it. Only Cr. Sheppard voted against the adoption of the report. Cr. L. G. Amos, who arrived late, said that he had intended to vote against the recommendation.