PROPOSED FLOUR TRADE TRUST.

New Zealand Mail, 8 February 1900, Page 9

PROPOSED FLOUR TRADE TRUST.

* I 8 said that a movement is now ■ afoot in New Zealand in connection with . the flour trade that deserves attention, i In this colony, as well as in Victoria, ! ie “Australasian” points out, the industry has fallen into an unprofitable [ condition. Various avtemuts to make l associations of millers work have net ? been successful, and a more drastic j scheme is in preparation. The'V'oposal ; is to form a trust, with a capital cqn- . tnbuted pro rata in proportion to the , capacity of the mills. The trust is to , buy the output of each mill, and to | re-sell to customers, the brands remains' mg aa they are now. The profits earned . by the trust are to be appropriated, , first in payment of interest on capital; . and the surplus as thought advisable, r The trust will also have the power to i purchase mills outright. While such a trust will probably be a more effective i instrument, in restoring the trade to a pn/per basis than an association, there » are, it is observed, serious disadvantages from a personal point of view. ) As the trust can do its own selling, the services of travellers and agents will not be necessary. This view is supported by the experience of trusts 1 newly formed in the United States 1 where great numbers of travellers were . suddenly thrown out of employment c • last year. Under a trust also the proprietors of the different establish- I ments lose practically all their independence. Considering these circum- r q stances, a- loyally supported association f is much to be preferred to what the * g Americans call an “ironclad trust.”

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