20TH CENTURY OPENS IN PROSPERITY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28865, 9 April 1959, Page 20

20TH CENTURY OPENS IN PROSPERITY

Achievements From 1900 To 1959

The twentieth century opened brightly in New Zealand, and the president of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce (Mr F. A. Frostick) commented in his annual report for 1900 that probably at no period in the history of New Zealand could there be found such unmistakable signs of general prosperity.

Organised settlement was 50 years old in Canterbury, many of the major firms in existence today had been founded and were growing steadily as the community increased, the frozen meat industry had opened up Britain as a great market for the farm produce and there was full employment. The Canterbury Chamber of Commerce had also grown in membership and importance, and was a power in the community.

There had been some allegations that the chamber was “conservative in constitution, exclusive in membership l and consequently failing to accomplish any real work.” Refuting this, Mr Frostick said that all but one nomination for membership during the preceding 20 years had been approved. He was able to point to considerable progress that had been achieved through the efforts of the chamber in initiating projects or enthusiastically supporting them. The annual meeting expressed some concern lest any further increase in production costs might cause demand to pass from New Zealand-made to. imported goods. A hint of. the population drift to the North Island was contained in the information ttiat for the first time Wellington had passed Lyttelton in meat export totals. But a quarter of the Dominion’s total wool clip was still being shipped through Lyttelton. Reference was also made to the fact that of the amount spent on public works in New Zealand, only 27 per cent, was voted for the South Island.

Decimal Coinage

One of the perennial subjects for discussion by commercial men was a topic of the times in 1901 also. The annual meeting of the chamber was told that the Government had rejected representations which had urged adoption of a decimal coinage system and a metric system of measurement.

A problem current today was also noted then, for the Mayor (Mr H. F. Wigram) later to become Sir Henry Wigram, told the annual meeting that Christchurch people had been showing a considerable amount of apathy on municipal affairs. The Arbitration Court, which was established by legislation passed by Parliament in 1899 appeared to have had a good effect on industrial relations. The chamber commented that since the Court had been operating strikes and lock-outs had been nonexistent.

In 1904, the chamber’s good work and importance were recognised by New Zealand’s famous Premier (Mr R. J. Seddon) when he consented to be the guest

speaker at the annual meeting. During his speech he suggested that chambers of commerce might endeavour to foster trade with India.

A year later the chamber was represented in preliminary arrangements being made for the exhibition to be held in Christchurch in 1906.

A sign of the good times then was the report that bankruptcies in New Zealand had fallen from 1089 in 1886 to 263 in 1904. Some doubts were expressed about the Workers’ Compensation Act and the effect it had on workers’ attitude to safety. One member said that employers were practically unanimous in saying that there had been increased carelessness by workmen since they had learned that they were covered by compulsory compensation.

In 1906, congratulations were extended to Timaru, where the South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce had been brought into being.

Port For City

The year was also marked by the interest taken in the chamber in the Port Christchurch scheme. But one member, Mr E. C. Brown, echoed the thought that has often been expressed about the attitude of the Christchurch public to major projects. “The people of Christchurch are a sleepy crowd when anything of importance is put before them.” The chamber, along with other organisations which have pressed for progressive works, has found over the years that as well as some apathy it has had to combat Christchurch’s notorious habit of becoming divided on important local issues so that the authorities have been able to sit back and do little or nothing while the local differences are ironed out; and the settling of those differences on some projects has taken many years.

Traffic Jam

The internal combustion engine was beginning to make its mark on New Zealand’s modes of transport, but trams, cycles and horsedrawn vehicles still formed the big bulk of the traffic, and with

the city’s growth they had come to create a traffic problem, especially at the bottleneck at the Bank of New Zealand corner. In 1906 the chamber’s council said there had been a decided reduction in traffic congestion through the stationing of policemen at the corner. Good news on the progress being made with the West Coast rail link—the chamber had not ceased hammering at the Government to get the work completed—was given to the meeting. The acceptance by the Government of a tender for the railway tunnel was said to have removed all doubts that Canterbury, and the West Coast would be linked.

On the chamber’s fiftieth anniversary in 1909, membership was given at 103, compared with 30 when the chamber was formed. Keeping a watch on the progress being made on the rail link, the chamber found that progress was not as good as it could be, and complaints became frequent in 1913 about the slow rate of work on the Otira tunnel, and three years later, during the First World War, the chamber protested strongly against the partial stoppage of work on the tunnel. Costs rose rapidly during the war, and in 1915 it was recorded that the cost of foodstuffs in Christchurch had increased by 7.72 per cent, during the year. The Government’s proposals for the settlement of returned soldiers were examined by the chamber, which warned that not all men were suited to farming. Satisfaction that after many years of representations the Government had agreed to appoint a separate Minister of Industries and Commerce Was contained in the report to the 1920 annual meeting.

The meeting strongly opposed a proposal by the Government to exempt the salaries of members of Parliament and judges of the Supreme Court from income tax. Parliament later abandoned the idea.

Tunnel Open

At the 1923 annual meeting, the vice-president (Mr Stronach Paterson) said the Otira tunnel, which had just been completed, provided one of the greatest commercial opportunities that had ever come to Canterbury. Even if the chamber had not initiated the project, it had fostered the idea untiringly and with unfaltering faith. The Dairy Produce Export Bill which had been introduced to Parliament during the year was the subject of sharp criticism

The bill set up a board with a majority of producer representatives to control the overseas marketing of New Zealand dairy produce. “No act of the last 25 years has done more to bring the Socialist Party in sight of the Treasury benches,” Mr Paterson said. The third chamber in the Canterbury district came into being in 1924 when the Ashburton chamber was formed. After 26 years as secretary. Mr H. Antill-Adley retired in 1925 and Mr P. R. Climie was appointed to the position. In the same year, the chamber leased its present buildings from the City Council. Then came one of the most important periods in the chamber’s history—when decisions and ideas formed in Christchurch by the chamber’s leaders had a profound effect on the country’s legislation.

The small but influential. Round Table Club consisting of’ three presidents of the chamber— Messrs W. Machin, C. P. Agar and Norton Francis—sponsored several proposals which were advanced by the chamber and became major Government-sponsored proposals in legislative form. Much of the framework for the Mortgagors’ Relief Act and probably the establishment of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand came from the interchange of ideas among the three men. During their terms of office, ranging from 1924 to 1930 there also came into being the chamber’s economic bulletin, which has appeared regularly ever since, and which forms a valuable guide to New Zealand economic conditions and trends. In ‘fils ‘presidentiaT address to the 1926 annual meeting, Mr Agar said that much of the country’s trouble stemmed from the fact that industries were put of balance. and that while some industries were protected with tariffs, the farmer , was selling his wool, meat and butter on unsheltered markets. Preference In 1930, in response to requests from the Christchurch Returned Services’ Association, the chamber gave as its view that where all qualifications were equal employers should give preference to returned servicemen.

Mr Norton Francis in 1931 made a suggestion which provided the basis for an agreement between farmers, lenders and mortgagees designed to keep farmers on the land, and the forerunner of the Mortgagors’ Relief Act.

Faced with worsening economic circumstances in the country and a high cost of government, the chamber proposed that to bring down the cost there should be a reduction in the number of members ot Parliament. That was one of its unsuccessful campaigns, for there are 80 members in the House of Representatives today just as there were then.

The first appearance of sales tax in 1P33 was uniformly unpopular with the business community. ‘‘No piece of legislation passed in recent years has irritated and perplexed the commercial community more,” the annual report of the chamber said. There might have been some consolation then in the comment: “It is intended to be of a more or less temporary na-

ture.” Twenty-six years later it seems to have acquired aome permanence. New Zealand was over-gov-erned, said Mr A. F. Wright, and the expenditure of £24 million a year to govern a population ot 1.5 million was utter extrava. gance, he said. There was a (rowing need to decentralise many of the State’s functions.

The Reserve Bank wa, Mt up in 1934, and Mr Norton Francis, who had been a leading advocate of the bank’s establishment, th appointed a director. With the Labour Government gaining power in 1935, the Chamber of Commerce found there were many more legislative proposals that affected private enterprise and freedom of trade then there had been in the past; and protests were many and frequent. The remarks of Mr V. E. Hamilton, president in 1937, summed up the chamber's attitude. As to New Zealand', greatest handicap, he said It wa, “over-regulation of a self-reliant and law-abiding people." Then came the import restrictions in 1938, and Just before the country was again called on to take its part in the war against totalitarianism the chamber was kept busy dealing with anomalies that arose as ,* result of the new regulations and with pressing for relaxation of the more irksome controls. In the 1940’s there was a division of opinion between manufacturers and importers in the chamber's membership on the import restrictions, but today there is general agreement that manufacturers' operations can Spner almost as much as impatiers’ when they cannot (eB materials or capital eqtrtptalpt needed to increase production » improve efficiency. Pillaging Pilfering of cargo became rife, and the chamber joined the Manufacturers’ Association in making representations to the Government to increase the penalties for persons found guilty of pilfering. The pillaging continued until a few years after the war, but stricter sentences on offenders had the desired effect of reducing it to almost negligible proportions. When tradesmen, particularly in the building industry, were transferred compulsorily to the North Island, the chamber protested vigorously and held that the lag in housing construction was just as great in the south. If premises had to be found for new industries, the South Island was the place to establish them, it said

Miss I. V. Shrimpton, the chamber’s present secretary, was appointed to the position in 1943, when she replaced Mr J. Roy Smith, the chamber’s present president. Elsewhere there is mention of the chamber’s long and strong advocacy of Christchurch’s international airport, of the current work done by the organisation. As it begins its second century, •one thing is sure of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. It will continue to work for what it regards as the good of the community, and that to a very great extent will be what the community will also look on aa being for the good of the city, the province, the country.