The Hawera Star. WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 8, 1930. RATIONALISATION AND MERGERS

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 8 January 1930, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 8, 1930. RATIONALISATION AND MERGERS

Delivered every evening by 6 o clock in Hawera, Kanaia, Kaupokonui, Otakeho, Oec. Pihama. Opunake. Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham. Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kaponga. Awatuna, Te Kiri, Mahoe. Lowgarth, Manutahi, Kakaramea, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Whenuakura, Waverley, Mokoia. Whakamara, Okaugai, Meremere, Fraser Road and Ararata

A striking feature of the year has been the movement at Home toward the amalgamation of allied industrial and I commercial enterprises. Early in February' it was reported that large multiple shop concerns, with a combined capital of £3,000,000 and controlling 3500 retail shops, had merged, and in the following month there were reports of the great amalgamation that placed the cable services of the Empire practically under one authority. This was followed by mergers of large tin companies, brick-making firms in the western counties, and certain toibacco concerns. May brought about the amalgamation of important ‘brewing interests, and in June there was formed Steel Industries, Ltd., with a capital of £11,000,000. TMs merger affected some of the most important steel-mak-ing firms in the Mother Country. Then followed the union of twenty firms cnj gaged in the manufacture of china,, a [merger of linoleum factories, and lastly i the report of another coal amalgamartion in South Wales, a grocery merger, and one affecting the firms making pianos. The eases mentioned by no means exhaust the list, but they will serve to show how widespread has been the movement towards the creation of centralised control, in order ,-to ensure greater efficiency and effect economies. Doubtless it has been influenced by the success of such large amalgamations as Imperial Chemicals, Ltd., as well as by the stern necessity for a united effort to retain and extend British trade in foreign markets. In certain cases large firms have united their interests in some -particular branch of trade. This applied to the arrangements entered into by some of the steel and iron companies. They amalgmated their railway rolling stock branches, and some their armament branches, while others joined in creating mergers that would supply the steel and other materials required iu the largo engineering works for which they contract. In addition there have been mergers uniting the- interests of British and foreign enterprises. Of these the most important have been the union of the great firms engaged in the manufacture and marketing of margarine, and the AngloAmerican combine that will specialise in making excavating machinery. This is the day of the big industrial and commercial enterprise, and the mergers have met with little hostile criticism. Indeed, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the British Labour Government has expressed 'his approval of the now order. It is more than likely that the year ahead will see further developments, all designed to strengthen the capacity of tli-e Mother Country to meet, the competition of other nations in the markets of the world.