TAUPO TOTARA CO.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10436, 29 September 1911, Page 7

TAUPO TOTARA CO.

PETITION FOR ORDER-IN-COUN-CIL. THE PARWAMENTARY COM- | MITTEE. ! By Telegtaph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, Thursday. The Parliamentary Committee set rixp ifco inquire into tlhe petition of tlie Toaipo Totara Timber Company for an Order-innOoamcil to purchase and occupy a Itargs area of native land, and eventually sell to tihie Government, was resumed to-day. James Bow, president of the. Rotorua. Chamber of Commerce., was emphatically of opiniion that th/e ambitions of the Cbmpany were opposed to the interests of tihe State, ais well as of the districts concerned. The creation of' such a monopoly, which proposed to !buy 312 square miles of land fi-om the Native® without competition, wias, lie considered, against the country'® interest. He had no objection, ,to tihe Company , as such, but if tb© Company could sell ifchle line, with; tlhe advantages of having tlie large (areas of land proposed to be acquired,the control of hotels and accommodation, and the means of transit iby land and water, as well I as tlie actual possession of the. active thermal sights of the district, they were mo longer dealing with a Company, hut wit.lv a fcody of capitalists with a lange monopoly. If | iahe iGoTOrnxnent agreed to the pro- ( jtosal, it would 'be a party to sidetracking ißlotonua. It -was not true (Rotorua opposed the Company's suggestion on account of tifoe competition of Taupo and Wairiaikei. |.- Ma- Myers asked witness: Would you, asi a business riwaa, prefer to see the -larid idle' for many years, if -told ithat this syndicate was pneparj'©d to agree that the Government should take over tihe line at any time at its. cost price, that charges were to 4>e of a reasonable nature, tliat as the volume of business . jocreased the return was not to exceed tihe limit when chaipge® we to ibe decreased, land that syndicate to jss>end money to prove itihat j|taid was capable ©f being (aTStwxl would you >ooin i eider tihe granting of a charter inimical in. any way to the best-interests of the Domin- ■■ • : . ■

: f .replied that the ifii gnanibed a charter for '^iil'time I think'it is", against the (best ante nests ci : the. State, even with all provisos mentioned." .In .reply-to Mi Dahaell (chairman of the directors of the' Companty), witness *aid that when he referred •co .monopolies hie, referred to the tourist traffic. Hie admitted that private ownership of lands .was better than native proprietary. Some of the Rbtorua holdings had incfreas'. ed'in value—considerably over 100 per cent. Mr Daniel!: Would' it not he 'better for till* comimamity that some attenttdon should be given to increasing th.j value of this great area of idle country rather than furthering Rotcrua vatoes? . ('Witness-: I may agree with that but hot withi the -manner proposed. ;Mr DalaieH: Would it not'benefit th* State? 'Witffiesis: Indirectly, yes. ■John Neil McLean, who also appeared on ihehailf of the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce, spoke against the petition.