THE HARVESTER TRUST

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5731, 28 October 1905, Page 5

THE HARVESTER TRUST

GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS. BOARD OF ADVICE SET BP. PROTECTION OF LOCAL INDUSTRIES. Early this morning in the House of Representatives tho Premier brought down proposals to doul with tho pompetition of trusts, notably tho American Harvester Trust, embodied in a measure called the Agricultural Implement Manufacture, Importation, and Sale Bill.

This bill provides for tho compilation of a standard list giving tho description of each implement, the nature and quality of the materials used in its construction, and tho price current on tho passing of the act. Tho implements to which tho act relates are ploughs of all kinds over L) cwt, tineharrows, disc-harrows, drills (combined grain, seed, and manure, ten coulters), drills (grain), rollers (laud and Cambridge over 7cwt), cultivators and grubbers (over 2 cwt), chaff-cutters (9iu mouth and over), self-baggiug chaffcutters, and seed-cleaners. Provision is made for setting up an Inquiry Board consisting of the President and members of tho Arbitration Court; tho president for tho time being of tho Farmers’ Union;, a nominee of tho Trades and Labour Council; and a representative of tho agricultural and pastoral associations. If tho manufacturers of tho colony reduce tho price of implements by 20 per cent, tho Board is then to ho called together to report whether a duty should bo put on _ equal to tho reduction made. If tho implement manufacturers raise the price; tho Board is to recommend the duty to ho put on. Mr Soddon, in briefly explaining the scope of tho bill, said it was only a tentative measure, and if nothing was done by tho Harvester Trust to unduly injure the industries of tho colony, things, of course, would remain as they wens, and there would he no necessity to bring tho bill into operation. Mr Massey said ho did not like tho bill very much. The bill was read a first time.