BREWERY COMBINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3611, 29 May 1923, Page 28

BREWERY COMBINE.

The following appeared in our Second FJdition last wee'/ :

OVER A MILLION CAPITAL. CHRISTCHURCH, May 18. As the outcome of a conference held recently in Wellington a proposal has been put forward for the amalgamation of all brewery interests in the dominion into one large public concern. Ihe shareholders in tire present brewery companies are to be asked to approve of the proposal, and special meetings are to be called for the purpose. Owners of small breweries, of which there are a large i’umber in the dominion, are also to be invited to join the amalgamation. All the existing concerns will come in on a valuation basis, and the new capitalisation will be effected for the new corporate body. This capitalisation will run into over a million of money, and it is proposed to give the public generally an opportunity of sharing in the control and fortunes of the new organisation. The inwardness of the scheme is really to convert the brewery trade in N>* v Zealand into a publicly-owned service, with methods of control and regulation to suit the sentiments of the people. One direct result of the amalgamation will be the abolition of the “tied” house system, for all supplies will came from the one central source. The element of goodwill in “tied” and other houses retailing brewery products will also, i( is claimed, disappear. Detarts of the financial proposals have not yet been completed, and nothing definite on this point can at present be secured from representatives of local brewery inSerests,. The scheme is still onh in the embryonic stage, and until the shareholders of companies and the owners of smaller breweries have extended legal acceptance to main principles little more oan be done. In the meantime owners of the present Irt-cwery concerns, public and private, will, it is stated, be paid in cash for their interests. or in shares in the new amalgamation, or partly in one form and partly in another. Shares and debentures in the new capitalisation will be issued to the public. In view of the proposed amalgamation brewery shares have shown a substantial rise during the past week or two.