WOOLSTON TANNERIES

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12356, 28 January 1926, Page 4

WOOLSTON TANNERIES

EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMISSION NO CONNECTION WITH MEAT TRUST STATEMENT ACCEPTED The commission set up by the Government to inquire into claims by Wool;,ton Tanneries, Ltd., of Christchurch, in respect of the regulations for the control of hides and skins during the war, continued its sittings in Wellington yesterday. The commission is empowered to inquire whether the Woolston Tanneries had suffered injury or damage in accordance with the allegations made in a petition to Parliament, and what damages, if any, they were entitled to. The commission was composed of Sir John Hooking. Sir John Findlay, K. 0., with him Mr C. H. Taylor, appeared for the Government, and Mr M. Myers, K.C., with him Mr H. E. Evans, for the company. The most, interesting development was the denial by Mr Arthur Cooper, one of the principals of Sime, Cooper, Ltd., who own about two-thirds of the shares in Woolston Tanneries, that his firm is, or ever had been, connected with the American Meat Trust. He said there was not a vestige of truth in the suggestion, and the company, in 1917, had offered the Government the fullest inspection of its affairs. Sir John Findlay said he accepted Mr Cooper’s statement “without hesitation and without doubt.” Dr. Reakes, the Director of Agriculture, said the opinion was widely held in New Zealand that Sims, Cooper, were in some way associated with the American Meat Trust. He also accepted the denial. Mr layers said that that statement would simplify the case very considerably. All they desired when they made their first claim was a definite statement that the company was in no way connected with the American meat trust, and in view of the statements made on behalf of the Government, it would not now be necessary to press the first claim.