The Binder Twine Monoply.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1374, 27 August 1895, Page 3

The Binder Twine Monoply.

The following editorial appeared in the Post of the 15th:--" We must have twine duty free, says Mr Lachlan, and so say the farmers of New Zealand. If the House was honest, there would be ho hesitation in removing the binder twine duty, but we ahall see. The Tariff Commission recommended its removal, but the Colonial Treasurer had not adopted the 'recommendation. ~ H© will no doubt fight hard for the duty. Although it only brings into the Treasury as many hundreds of pounds as it is instrumental in exacting thousands from the pockets of the consumer, into whose pockets does the difference go ? The duty is unproductive from a revenue point of view; has fostered the formation of a monopoly which is s really as great a public scandal as any of the American rings or trusts, which colonists hear so much about, and so virtuously condemn. There have been few worse developments of monoply anywhere .than the bond by which, under penalty, the price of binder twine in the colony was fixed at a price 33| per cent, higher than that at which the producers found it profitable to export it to other countries. The monoply which the retention of this duty permits to exist must be an enormously profitable one, as it is gradually being concentrated in] as ; small a syndicate as possible. Only a day or two ago the telegraph announced the absorption of the Auckland twine manufactory by the Southern syndicate, the head quarters of which are believed to be in Invercargill. At any rate, it was the manager of a wellknown Southern firm who went 'to Auckland to negotiate the transaction. It might be worthy the attention of Members to follow the clue. That such a transaction should have been openly carried through while the duty question is. actually pending in Parliament shows what confidence the monopolists must have in their power to prevent the House interfering with their profits by... removing the duty. Time will show whether this confidence is well founded or not."