Quiet Meeting For N.Z. Breweries

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32350, 16 July 1970, Page 16

Quiet Meeting For N.Z. Breweries

(New Zealand Preet Association, WELLINGTON, July 15. New Zealand Breweries shareholders who went to their annual meeting expecting noise and fireworks would have been sadly disappointed.

The meeting was a model of good order, easily controlled by the chairman (Sir Clifford Plimmer) and hardly a raised voice was heard.

Last year's meeting was one of the noisiest and rowdiest shareholders’ meetings held in Wellington for many years. The offer for election to the board of Mr J, P. Crawford, was once again on the agenda, but Mr Crawford had a quiet time of it and when the ballot.^was taken at midday it seemed unlikely that he would succeed. He confined his remarks to comments on a possible reduction in dividend after the bonus issue and a brief resume of his qualifications. “Shareholders will want the dividend to be at least maintained.” he said. “If I am elected to the board Twill be in favour of at least maintaining the dividend.” Sir Clifford Plimmer assured the meeting that the board was conscious of its responsibility to shareholders. “If it is at all possible there will not be a reduction in the dividend. Shareholders have had a pretty rough run in the past few years.

“I’m not making a commitment but if possible a dividend on the bonus shares will be paid.” He then addressed the meeting on a few topical subjects. The dividend tax means that tax paid dividends will attract further tax in the bands of shareholders. As a counter to inflation dividends should be raised—but this will not be possible. Share investment is now less attractive compared with fixed interest securities and economic growth could be retarded. The payroll tax in Australia and the United Kingdom is deductible for tax purposes, be said. It will cost the company $105,000 which meant that a further $210,000 must be earned to pay it and wage escalation will make for a much higher estimate. The tax is unlikely to have much, if any effect, on labour users, and firms on long term contracts should have some relief. Government departments connected with private enterprise—for example the Ministry of Works, should be subject to the tax. If the payroll tax is re-

tained in private Industry it would be used for productive purposes—“l would be interested to know how much of the Government’s extra spending will be productive.” On industrial unrest Sir Clifford Plimmer said “If we accept that the labour shortage is a cause of unrest we should have more men work-ing-through immigration, more encouragement to retired people to remain at work, and work while we settle industrial agreements.”