COLONIAL TRUSTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17158, 10 November 1917, Page 11

COLONIAL TRUSTS.

Sib, —Wo hear a great deal of talk about tho Moat Trust and its operations in our midst. Tho peril is fully appreciated by all thinking citizens, butt what about our local trusta and their operations? Methinks it word well to start sweeping up our own fireside, and not to allow all the hard names to bo hurled at a. foreign trust which can easily, be dealt with by efficient legislation. Tho latest revelation is that tho Cromwell Development Company has been allowed to purchase, on tho quiet, 4000 acres of tho flat land between tho mountain and the Clulha Kivcr. Tho prioo hag not been divulged, but this trust now has tho -whole of Cromwell district under its thumb. Application after application for portions of this land havo bean made in the paat by local settlers who, having failed to secure an acre, havo had to leave tho district. Tho public has no doubt read some of tho Meat' Company's reports. Shareholders havo congratulated tho directors on tho handsome dividends wrung from British people in their timo of travail. ]VTercha.nte were allowed, soon after tho war broke out, to increase their prices 50 per cent. Again and again havo they assured tho public that it was beyond their power to regulato tho rise in tho price of various articles, but, when their returns come out for the yearwar profits and more war profits! If wo are not to become a decadent nation this state of affairs must stop. Eliminate competition from our life 'by the operations of huge trusts, as at present existing, and our people •will become machines to be worked by and for tho profit of a few money kings. In conclusion, I would suggest that Parliament seriously consider the limitation of incomes to any private individual to, say, £2000 per annum, and of any companv to 10 per cent., by taking the balance. This steadying factor would act as a brake, and at the samo timo help toreduee oirr national debt.—l am, etc., E. ff. Wahd. Dunedin, November 8. '