STATE TRADING CRITICIZED

Southland Times, Issue 23988, 1 December 1939, Page 11

STATE TRADING CRITICIZED

PROTEST MADE BY MERCHANTS

LOSSES TO PUBLIC ALLEGED CONTROL BY COMMERCIAL INTERESTS WANTED (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, November 30. At the annual conference of the New Zealand Grain, Seed and Produce Merchants’ Federation, held at the Centennial Exhibition, a long discussion took place about the difficult conditions prevailing in the trade as a consequence of the wide extent of Government interference. in trading. Fifty delegates from all parts of the Dominion unanimously carried the following resolution:— This annual meeting of the New Zealand Grain, Seed and Produce Merchants’ Federation protests against Government mishandling of important foodstuffs to the detriment of the public’s pocket and convenience and asks that the Government in future leave the handling of these lines to the commercial community. Three samples of the Government’s mishandling are:— ONIONS The Government this year prohibited merchants importing and became the sole importer with what result? (a) In August the Government misread the market and heavily over-imported Japanese onions. As a result the public paid exorbitant prices. (b) In September the Government again misread the market and went to the other extreme by importing a hopelessly insufficienz quantity of onions. As a result there was a famine in onions and exorbitant prices were paid by the public. POTATOES Many hundreds of tons of potatoes were'shipped to South America in 1938, the Government again misreading the market. The result was many thousands of pounds loss to New Zealand. GENERAL PRINCIPLES (a) Instead of the public interest being served the public’s pocket is being broached because Government servants, whose ability we fully respect in their own sphere, are allotted commercial undertakings for which they have neither training nor experience. (b) Monopolistic control by the Government which buys badly and, being the sole importer, covers, up its mistake by making the public pay. Under private enterprise, if one merchant errs in buying, the competition of other merchants gives the public the benefit. Therefore in the public interest, the Government should retire from these experiments, leaving private enterprise to serve the public. It was decided to send copies of the resolution to all Ministers whose departments are concerned' in trading in produce lines normally handled by members of the federation.

Mr J. R. Howie (Auckland) was unanimously appointed president of the federation for the ensuing year and Mr G. Buxton Green (Timaru) vice-presi-dent.