CENTRAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 73, 19 December 1917, Page 6

CENTRAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

VARIOUS SUBJECTS DISCUSSED

A general meeting of the Wellington Central Chamber of Commerce waa held Tast evening. Mr. C. M. Luke presided, and there was a very good attendance of members. Mr. C. M. Luke introduced the subeot of hydro-electric power. Ho traced the early development of the matter, and showed that the desirability of making the exploitation of hydro-elec-trio power a State enterprise was brought under the notice of the late Mr. Seddon. Ho referred to the reports that had been made by "different esperts, and ho traced the legislation that had been passed by Parliament. ITe contended that the problem befora the Dotnjnion and the world was how io make good the wastago that was faking placo at the prosent time. Tho wastage was represents! by enormous loan 8 and represented a burden thab won"* have to he carried for many years to come. The nation that would win out would ba the one would increase its production rapidly and at minimum cost. The time was coming when this country must consider other interests besidoa those of the production of food, and we must develop Those other industries and new enterprises. New Zealand was particularly well adapted for the introduction of hydro-electric power, and this power could he niada available from Auckland to the Bluff. The Lake Coleridge works cost £367,000. The maximum kilowatts sold in 1916 wero 1307, and in i§l7 the quantity sold was 3460. llie units sold, in 1916 was 4,000,000, and in 1917 over-17,500,000. Tho income in 1916 was £8508, and in 1917 it amounted fo £20,750. The annua cost in 1916" was £26.167, and in 1917 it was £■ 35,710. lu Christchuroh tho pnoo of a uiitt of electricity was }d., while in Wellington it waa 3d. Many users of power in Christchuroh had abandoned their gas plants and other- power plants for the cheap electric power. Mr. Luka thought that tho SI .nnon scheme-was The most practicable one for Wellington and that scheme could be started even under war conditions. The construction of dams and other preliminary works could ho • undertaken now, and nc held that every effort should be made to impress upon the Government the necessity for making a start at onoe. Teohnloal Education.

Mr "W S. La Trobe delivered an address on Technical Education. He said that the post-war problems wwe being considered by tboso interested to technical education in Great Britain and iu other countries. The technical training of the Germans bad proved their greatest power in war. We had in New Zealand a very solid system of primary education, which meanT that the ground was well prepared, and it was absolutely necessary that the, primary system should bo developed in adolescence it was necessary to train the young people to become good workers and good citizens of a useful-State. In preparing for peace we must train our workers to meet competition, and in a commercial sense that was a very profitable insurance. By training Qfe young people in technical education it might be said ■■that each one would have a marshal s baton In his knapsack, and later soma might have control of large businesses. There was a large financial interest in having trained operatives, especially in the highly-trained industries. It was becoming recognised that evening technical classes were not quite so good as day classes. He thought that the time musE come when a half-time.or some •■such, system was adopted in New Zealand It was often stated that we were not getting the results from technical education considering tlw amount spent. The cost was about £100.000 per annum, and.there, wcro 20.000 students, of whom over 4000 were industrial students. The cost ot technical education was one-tenth of the amount spent on primary education. Ho dealT with the monetary results, and showed" what it meant to the students arid to their employers.

Commercial Trusts. , Mr H. Hart dealt with the subject of tlie operations of commercial trusts. He Bald there was a tendency to look upon trusts with suspicion, and perhaps rightly so. He considered that no country offered such opportunities for exploration as New Zealand,, and that was the case with all countries down-, dent upon primary products. lliey lent themselves to manipulation DT pools, associations, and syndicates, and perhaps we had not yet been able to notice the leakage. The trust idea was one of recent development, and the question had assumed remarkable-pro-portions. He referred to the combination that existed between the British raffing mills and the German ironworks, which went to show that trusts wero of an international character. It .was contended that trusts were the-natural outcome of present conditions, because of the tendency to largo production. These organisations, it was contended, were the means of securing efficiency, and skilful management