TRUSTS IN AUSTRALIA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 25, 29 July 1911, Page 3

TRUSTS IN AUSTRALIA.

[FROM OUR OWN COfcRESfONDENT.] SYDNEY, 22nd July. Recent rumours that the American Meat Trust, the combination with a capital stated at £40,000,000, was extending its- operations to Australia, have crystallised m a. definite statement by the New South Wales Minister for Agri' culture that the tfU6t is actually at work, has bought stock, and has cargoes afloat. Mr. Trefle expressed the Labour Government's intention of taking steps to protect the New South Wales stockowners and meat-shippers. This is more easily promised than accomplished. The United States Supremo Court recently dissolved the Standard Oil Trust, but the Standard Oil Trust has merely varied its component titles and rearranged its system. The agreement of its members is decisive as long as they agree; they will agree as long as it is to their interest to agree ; and the very existence of their agreement presupposes their common interest. The only thing that can be done to restrain the American Meat Trust is to prohibit unfair trading, and to enforce the prohibition if possible. But the trust's superiority to competitors may equally be shown in fair trading. It is ay tho command of capital, by the perfection of organisation, by the adequacy of appliances, b,y the capacity of management, that a trust confirms its claim to monopoly. As against smaller competitors t lacking its commercial advantages, it has an evident superiority even while it strictly observes the law. These advantages usually can be matched only by a Tival organisation— in fact, by another trußt the tendency of that organisation is always to come to terms in a merger of trusts. ( The Australian application is ftot precise, because the purely Australian interest in the meat trade is bound to be different from that of the Ameri- I cans, to whom Australia represents only one among several legs to stand on. So it is likely that a New South Wales trust, supported by t the Government as far as possible, will be > the _ practical consequence of the American incursion. Stock-owners may e&pect to thrive while the Competition lasts. The difficulty of ma.king legislation against trusts operative is shown by i the Commonwealth proceedings against the Newcastle Coal Vend. A judge of the High Court has been occupied in Sydney_ for nearly three months in hearing evidence and deciding issues, a.nd the merits of the case have been obscured to the public by the cloud of legal dust. An expensive bar is engaged I on each side, and costs already incurred on both sides approximate £20.000. The Newcastle Vend^ in its essential aspect*, I is a trust; itk admitted that there was a combination of colliery proprietors i to Tegulate the trade, and that an agreement in aid of this regulation was made with' a combination of shipping proprietors. Bnt whether these combinations were monor/olistic, and whether, if so, the monopolies were noxious, and whether, if bo, they were illegal, are matters- upon which mountains of evidence have been piled up by the Government as plaintiff, and weeks have been passed in the contentions of lawyers. The case approaches an issue slowly, a,nd that issue t is not necessarily fina.l. The ca.se is ominous of the difficulties which confront the Commonwealth and the States t l>efote trusts can be brought even nominally under con* trol.

Considerable kv^ee bave been sustained by sheep-farmers in the Wairarapft owing to black scour amonsst hoggete. One farmer states that he has lost 400 out of 2000, whilst another farmer had 500 deaths amongst his flock of 2000 sheep.