CURBING COMBINES

NZ Truth, Issue 979, 30 August 1924, Page 4

CURBING COMBINES

REFORM BOWS TO THE OLD IDOLS. ; .* ' - ■"■>.,■'■ In its political past the Reform Party was always against, such State enterprises as fire insurance, the mining and retailing of coal, etc. So Mr. Massey, the long-time P.M., must smile when he hears his Customs Minister (Downie Stewart, "the hope of his side") pronounce for just those State activities that were anathema to the elders of the Reform congregation. Seddon knew two forms, of State trading — the State monopoly (such us railways) and the competitive State enterprise, of which the State Fire (office is perhaps the finest example. The latter kind was not intended to be monopolistic. It was intended to be regulative of prices. And now, after a series of abortive war-time experiments m, restricting prices by command, Downie Stewart says that it won't work, and he pins his faith to State competition as "the only effective means of holding down prices." "What a tribute to that Seddonian principle which Massey obstructed m Opposition, but, when m ' office, dares not to revoke! :: :: The candour of the Cabinet's enfant terrible did not stop there. « He had the temerity to regret that he "could not at the present juncture ask for money to start State brickworks and other, works" to protect \the public against unduly high prices. If Reform were to be Judged by what the Minister, stands for m State trading, and by Rolleston's . ideas m finance, many a staid Reformer would receive a profound shock. ■ . . State brickworks, it will be remembered, was the prime political sin clleged the Holman Labor Government m New South Wales. Through at least, two elections Labor was pelted with its own bricks by the Liberal foe. And to think that Downie Stewart. . . !!! !I XX If Mr. Massey goes on at this rate ! he may yet find himself at the head of a State fishing business, one of the smelliest things m New South Wales history. And when that happens, the Reform apostasy will be complete. If the question be asked— "To what extent has State trading curbed prices m New Zealand?" — an answer will be found m the undoubted achievements of the State Fire Office. In the mining and retailing of coal, also, it Is probablo that some degree of check has been placed on private prices. But m tho 'State coal Industry there is a hiatus (shipping transport) not found m the insurance business. The Public Works, Prisons, and Railways Departments have been sawmillers, for their own purposes, for many years; and to-day wo find even Mr. Massoy himself foreshadowing the acceptance of private orders by the Railways Department's sawnlilling and house-building branch (as soon as it has met tho housing needs of tho Railways Department's own staff), Timber itself seems to constitute not more than 20 per cent, (some people say 18 per cent.) of the cost of a dwelling. So house-erection means a good deal moro than mere timber; hence the importance of the Railways Department's now organisation. Downio Stewart's bricks would provide another angle of approach. But if bricks, why not cement? As coming from Reformers, not mere Laborites, all these ideas are very interesting. But, whatever the possibilities of the State as an active competitor m industry may be, it 'a not to be assumed that the Government's powers to control combines by administrative measures are altogether negligible

The report of the Dominion Federated Sawmillers' Association/ quoted m ■Parliament by Mr. Downie Stewart, m which report the Association denies that it influences prices, is so much eye-wash. "Truth" : has proved the inter-locking shareholdings and interests of the big sawmillers. It has exposed 'the tactical methods of lock-ing-in small bushowners. If a big s,awmilling firm, a member of the inter-locked combine, monopolises sole tramway rights so as to limit production, it at once limits prices, because prices are based on production. And this is done. , "Truth" has proved it to the hilt. . :: :: ,r: The Government of New Zealand (Reform or Liberal matters not) cannot plead that it had not, or has not, power to prevent such exploiting and monopolistic tactics. The Government (this one or its predecessors) is to blame for granting tramway rights on such loose conditions that one proprietary may monopolise the sole transport line m a narrow "valley. It is, and always has been, quite an easy matter for a Government to grant timber rights and tramway licenses on such conditions that a tramway owner cannot refuse to carry other people's timber dependent on his tramway. Such other people^ of course, to contribute on fair terms towards the cost of the service. '■'' • ss :: The thinness of the camouflage behind which the big sawmiller operates has been exposed In successive articles — particularly m that inimitable correspondence between Ellis and Burnand Ltd. and a lockedih soldier-settler-— but it should not be necessary for a newspaper to have to dig up such trickery. It could all have been prevented by a few strokes of a Governmental pen. Even m cases, where exclusive rights have been definitely granted to people who are now making a monopolistic use of those rights, the Government is by ho means powerless, for the farflung interests of a big sawmilling company touch State property at many points, and such a company is so dependent upon Governmental concessions and permissions, that a Minister of independent mind could easily discipline the exploiting recalcitrant. So it is to be hoped that Ministerial despair over the . general ineffectiveness of price-fixing ordinances, and the zeal of some Ministers m the direction of State competition, will not blind them to the fact that Cabinet can deal with offenders administratively — if »t is sincerely minded to do 60. I How easily Seddoh would have I found a way. How easily a Labor Government could find a way! :: :: :: A Government that would administratively prevent big business from doing unfair (though perhaps legally white-washable) acts would be m the interest of everybody— even of big business Itself— -because concentrated capital can operate only through organised society, and there is no greater danger to the social system of the day than the, people's smouldering resentment of monopolistic* exploitations that are winked at by politicians. If there were a real Employers' Association it would, even if only m its own sectional interests, go out with a club after those combinations whose legal robbery of the public is patent and chronic. That a Government "of tho people, by tho people, for the people" should tolerate such tactics is explainable only by tho underground powar of money (as m party war-chests) op by a degree of inertia amounting to a disease, and beneficial to no interest except thoao d . . <ptive forces tor whom anything discreditable m demo* crajiy providos powder and shot*