ADVANCE, HAWERA!

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 November 1924, Page 4

ADVANCE, HAWERA!

A PROPOSED FUSION. RETAILERS AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. At the annual meeting of the Hawera Chamber of Commerce last night a reconunendation was made to the incoming council that more general meetings should be held, that the council meetings should be held in committee j and that the Retailers’ Association should be approached with a view to arranging something of a fusion of the two bodies. Mr. P. Bond, on whose motion the recommendation \vas made, said he did . not like the method on which the business of the Chamber was conducted. The council met once a month, and every third meeting was-supposed to be a quarterly general meeting, but ‘ perhaps there would not be as many present at a quarterly general meeting as at the preceding monthly council meeting. / Personally, he did ‘not think the council meetings'should be open to the press. There was nothing more irritating to reporters than to have a lot. of committee work dealt witli at the . meetings they attended; they , did not want to know about all sorts of intimate.matters that they could not make ‘‘copy” of. It was not a fair thing to t'j}® reporters,/and it was not a fair thing to the-.council, as there were many matters that ought to be dismissed freely. •/ i o i n l^i nu^n Si Mr. Bond said - there should be more ( frequent meetings ’of the general body, of members, and he', would .like to see the meeting recommend the council yto alter the constituteol^* 11 respect. A membership of 35 was not sufficient for. a place like Hawera. The trouble was that there was a multiplicity of small bodies, \ which resulted in being dis- ■ cussed, by the Chamber which should be discussed with \the Retailers’ Association. said the speaker, was essentially a trading town, and matters came regularly before the Chamber that were of interest to the retailers. He considered that general meetings should be held twice a quar- ■ ter, and council meetings at reasonable intervals before the general meetings/ In this way members) would be able to come to the general meetings with, the advantage ,of having matters for • discussion , previously -investigated bv ' the council and definite information secured to gude the meetng. > To sum up, Mr. Bond maid that what was wanted was more frequent general meetings, council meetings' in commit- , tee, and th© Retailers’iAssociation to be approached with a viewhte arranging some reasonable basis of fusion of the two bodies.- Business vyhjch only concerned the retailers could/be done at / then own sectional committee meetings' Un the chairman’s suggestion Mr! Bond moved a recommendation embodying the suggestions K&had . made, and his motion was seconded bv Mr. Freyberg. J Mr. Sellar, who is also 'a member ' ' of the executive committee of the Re- ’ tailers | Association, said it/ was very '" probabl© that the association/would be approaching the Chamber with a view to bringing about greater cooperation, between, the two bodies, or perhaps a' H° wev « r - b© could not say. whether the association would be j„ favour of a fusion or not, but the matter was to be discussed. M . a . The secretary (Mr. R. S. Sage) said that for several ye&rs during the war permd the two bodies worked together, but they later separated. Hb’fffound new. that business men, when i approached on the question of membershipgave th© excuse that they -could not afford to subscribe to both bodies, in tins way he had been turned down by men who ought -to be members of both the Retailers’ Association and the Chamber of Commerce. _ The chairman said: there was a good deal m favour of fusion, but in connection the proposal to hold council meetings in committee it was liist as well to have as much publicity 'as on certain “questions ./ The matter was then put and carried.