TRUST THEM NOT.

Observer, Volume XXI, Issue 1183, 31 August 1901, Page 22

TRUST THEM NOT.

To the Editor Observer.

Sir, — An official of the Southern Milling Trust must Jaave received instructions from Mr Meek, managing director of the Trust, to announce to the public, through the medium of the press, that the Trust was actually formed to benefit the farmer at the expense of the consumer, because the official says, " The syndicate are giving the growers 3£d more per bushel now than formerly, and have been doing so for over two weeks. As this ecfuals 17s (id per ton, and as the price of flour has only been advanced 15s, the rise is a loss instead of a gain to the Trust, and the miller is worse off now than he was 10 years aco." Will the Trust official kindly explain what the objects of the Trust are ? It is evident they are marvellous as regards philanthropy to Tanner and Trust, and it causes one to pause and ask if this is the millennium era. when the lion and the lamb shall lie down togebher with a possibility of one being inside, and who will that be ? If the official is so " young " and foolish to expect the public to swallow his " Trust pill," he is very much deceived. Mr Meek, managing director of the Trust, says, " New Zealand wheat markets are guided by the London ones," which is quite true. And the reason why the miller had to pay (if he did) from 2d to 2^d per bushel more, not 3^-d per bushel, was due to the fa.ct that London steamer freights were so plentiful during the last month, owing to the collapse of the London mutton markets. that the steamers were put on the berth to load for London at twenty shillings per ton up to the 25th August (previously they were 30s), making a difference of about 3d p«r bushel in favour of shippers. If the miller bought at the temporary advance — which is very doubtful, as millers, gruin merchants unid speculators boasted they carried large wheat stocks — so it is apparent the wheat had long passed out of the hands of the ordinary farmer ; and as the cheap freights are off, and the London markets placid as an oyster for the last two or three months, and as the New Zealand markets are again easy since freights were withdrawn, augmented by an immense surplus in view, who derived the benefit of the recent £1. advance in flour ? Will the Trust official explain why Trust Hour is being sold at £7 at Ghristchurch and £7 5s at Dunedin, where the wheat is grown at their very doors. Yet the Trust price for flour for Auckland is £6 f.0.b., less 2\ per cent, the object being to force the Auckland mills u> join -to get a monopoly of the New Zealand flour business and dictate tornis to farmer and consumer. Will the Trust, official explain how the millers are worse off now ? liecause "Mr Meek, managing director of the Southern Milling Trust, when boasting and threatening in his now famous circular of the status of one of the mills within the Trust fold, said, " That during the last seven years it had returned seventy-five per cent of the original capital, besides writing down the value of property, £10,748, and putting aside a reserve fund of £8,342." What more do they want ? In view of the foregoing, what are the objects of the Trust ? It is apparent they are numerous, but who will they benefit ? And per haps the Auckland mills, from a business point of view, were wise in not putting their trust in a Trust that parts with 17s 6d for 15s. Yours, etc. Worker.