CEMENT COMPANIES’ PROFITS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 July 1933, Page 8

CEMENT COMPANIES’ PROFITS.

(To the Editor).

Sir, —There is no doubt the average New Zealander is a very tolerant per-, son. One is forced to that conclusion after reading the report of the Tariff Commission, more especially on the question of the cement trust’s £500,000 in dividends and reserves, piled up in ten years, when the country is standing with its back to the wall. Thousands of our pioneers are having their incomes cut to threads, and some are losing their all, while these companies are living in the lap of luxury. I am not one to suggest Government interference in business, but when I see it subsidising labour on practically £500,000 worth of 'buildings to’ help the unemployed, then I say as soon as the Commission has finished its report it should appoint Professor Murphy to thoroughly investigate the affairs of the cement companies in New Zealand. He will apparently find that they are making tremendous profits (as the general manager of one company plaintively suggested in his evidence that the only justification for the protection they were receiving and preventing cheap British supplies coming in was the fact of their interlocking with the cheap Continental firms). Every man, woman and child in New Zealand is interested n cement just now. It is a national qv >n that costs be reduced, and that we gut labour back into harness and reduce the unemployment tax. To prevent unwarranted profits on cement is one way of doing it. In view of the new dairy regulations, and with a view to stimulating work in the factories and on the dairy farms, I would suggest that every branch of the Farmers’ Union forward a remit to headquarters calling headquarters to put the cement companies on the same basis as the manure works, and get down to actual costs, leaving them a five per cent, profit. I would also suggest to Messrs. Fulton, Holland and Co. that if they have a genuine interest in getting their fellows back to work here is a great chance for them, also to get their unions to see that justice is done. —I am, etc., W. J. FREETH. Pukearuhe, July 11.