CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 883, 8 December 1916, Page 5

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

j QUARTERLY MEETING. The quarterly meeting of tin Canterbury Chamber of Commerce was held j yesterday afternoon, the president (Mr ! IT. S. Bourn) being in the chair, about 23 members being in attendance. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. In the course of his address the president made reference to the recent principal events of the war, expressing regret at the Cabinet crisis in England. Continuing, Mr Bourn said:—"Conscription of men as soldiers was introduced by Parliament, and has become operative. Some So,ooo of the best of our producing population, a number which a young country can ill sp>are if its productions are to be maintained, and at a cost to the country of some £12,000,000 have enlisted for service. EMPLOYMENT OF ALIENS. "The matter of aliens being employed by shipping companies was inquired into, and it was ascertained that in addition to the shipping companies having taken steps in the matter the police were instructed to watch that no aliens obtained work on vessels. The Superintendent of Police was interviewed, and stated that they had instructions to watch the matter of alien employ." PILLAGE OF CARGO. "This matter was taken up with the Minister of Justice, and referred by him to the Minister of Marine, who replied that inquiries would be made, and he would see what could be done to remedy the evil. The Minister of Police wrote that the police were doing their best to deal with pilfering. Harbour Board officials and stevedores could probably take more effective steps, and it was also a matter for consideration by the Railway Department whether they should not appoint special railway police similar to those employed by large railway firms in England. It was arranged to interview the. General Manager of Railways on the subject, but as he passed through Christchurch on his return to Wellington it was not possible to arrange for a deputation. CONGESTION AT RAILWAY GOODS SHEDS. "This matter, which has caused great inconvenience to merchants, was under consideration, and it was intended to refer to it at the interview with the General Manager of Eailways. WOOL CLIP. "The Minister of Agriculture was written to urging that in any arrangement regarding the wool clip entered into by, or controlled by, the New Zealand Government, provision be made that 2/6 each be allowed for wool packs for the season. COMMANDEERING OF WOOL. "With regard to other matters of commercial interest to the community, the most important is the taking over of the wool clip of the Dominion, together with the slipe w T ool. Seeing this industry represents practicallv of the Dominion's production, it can easily bo understood the amount of detail work involved in arranging display for valuation purposes and shipping is considerable. The price must lie considered to be a liberal one, and it is to be hoped that too much advantage will not be taken of the privilege of appeal in bickering over the values, but that the business of so large an undertaking will be allowed to run smoothly, as, after all, it is a war measure, important in the issue of the war. It is estimated that the greasy j clip will realise from £12,000,000 to £12,500,000, while the slipe from the J skins and sheep and lambs slaughtered] will give upwards of £2,000,000. MUTTON AND BEEF. "An additional Jd per pound has been agreed upon for the output of mutton and lamb, and an equivalent in beef, over ami above the rates paid last year, commencing from slaughtering done after November 1. This additional figure will amount to £1,000,000, calculated upon last year's output of mutton and lamb, with beef in addition. The season's output is! therefore estimated to yield £5,000,000.1 These prices are entirely satisfactory in themselves, but producers would have preferred to have seen the door shut against, undue individual profits being | made by speculators of the surplus not j required for Imperial Army purposes, of j which there can be no doubt was the; case with last season's exportation, to 1 someone's munificent advantage. WHEAT AND OATS. "Statistics collected by the Govern-' men! Statistician show a falling-off in! the area of wheat and oats sown, the, figures being actually estimated at | 218,877 acres of wheat and 548,520 I acres of oats, as compared with :i:j;j,42.'! acres of wheat and 6-10,227 acres of oats; actually reaped in 1015-10, showing a! decrease of 110,540 acres of wheat and 1)1,701 acres of oafs. Taking 25 bushels! as an estimated yield of wheat, will! produce -J, 171,92.3 bushels, and, given 6,5(10,000 as the Dominion's require-1 meats, leaves a deficiency of 1,028,073 bushels. Tins is a direct result of the j Government's action in limiting the! price when outside markets commanded a much higher figure. With wheat at 5/7 i, plus freight and duty from Australia, it points to a dear leaf.

IMPORTANCE OF ORGANISATION. "In conclusion, I would point out the importance of organisation generally, economy in everything—a conserving of energies and labour towards doing something towards assisting the war—no matter how small." SUBMARINE WARFARE. The president mentioned that a letter had been received from the Navy League, stating that 2SO Chambers of Commerce had passed resolutions to the effect that no peace proposals be entered into that did not insist upon enemy countries replacing ships sunk by submarines or otherwise. Mr 11. J. Marriner moved that the chamber pass a similar resolution, and that all New Zealand chambers be asked to do like wise. This motion was carried. POST-WAR PROBLEMS. Mr G. T. Booth thought that the time was opportune for the consideration of post-war problems. He was of opinion that Britain should, long ago, have taken the step in the direction of mobilisation such as had been taken by Germany. The question naturally arose: | What was New Zealand going to do in j this matter. We had done well so far. A tremendous amount of wealth had I come out of the accumulations of this I little Dominion. But it was up to us, i even when the war is on, to get machinery in order so that we might do some- ! thing to fill up the gap that will have j been made in our finances. All extravagant and unnecessary expenditure should be cut out. A tremendous amount of unseen waste was going on because of the lack of organisation of our social and industrial systems. He would like to suggest that the chamber represent to the Government the necessity of mobilising the commercial and industrial resources of the Dominion in order to prepare fc. .e establishment of a scheme which could be put into operation when the time was ripe for meeting post-war problems. Such scheme must be a uniform one for the Dominion, and not prepared in piecemeal fashion by different spasmodic attempts in the various centres. He moved:— "That this (handier represent to the Government tlie urgent necessity or devising machinery for organising and mobilising the industrial and man resources of the Dominion, both during and succeedini;' the war, with a view to realising the utmost possil l<> economy and efficiency in all depai Mients of national activity." The mot ion was carried. WAR REGULATIONS. Mr C. 11. Hewlett said that the Government should put its foot down upon the alien element in New Zealand that was endeavouring to stir up trouble in this Dominion. In reply to the chamber's.protest against aliens being allowed liberty, the Government had said that no action in this direction was intended. The latest regulations were all right; but would they be enforced? That was the question that was bein« asked. He moved that the chamber views with satisfaction the framing of the recent regulations, and that the chamber trusts that they be rigidly enforced. This was carried.