CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14099, 17 April 1920, Page 5

CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE

VALUE OF THEIR CONFERENCES. A LACK OF ACTIVE INTEL EST. Speaking at the meeting' of flic Council of the Mastertonx Chamber of Commerce yesterday afternoon in regard to the business transacted at the recent Chambers of Commerce confer- • -enc© held at Wellington, Mr A. C. Major, who represented the local Chamber. said that it was questionable whether anything effective resulted from the of these conferences. a lack of a connecting link .between the conference and the Government. Resolutions were passed by the conference, and there matters seemed to end. Evidence of this was contained in the request of the conference held i« Wellington recently in regard to the Bankruptcy Act, in which the conference again urged the Government to amend the. Bankruptcy Act by _giyiug effect to- the recommendations maW at the conferences in 1909, 1915, 1916, 1917 and 1918,' .and also in regard’ to the resolutions regarding taxation passed by the conference in 1918. The impression he had received through .attending the conference this year was that delegates were fully aware of the position, but that they were content to leave it at that. They neglected to dis-. play that energy required to make the Government bring the recommendations into operation. ‘‘The fact is, ,J said Mr Major, ‘the of the conference were very interesting, but they suffered from lifelessness, like our local cliam-. » her. ’ ’ . Mr Major said that, m regard to railwav aonstruetion, it seemed to him •that th£ was altogether too much ■“politrSf l pull’-’ about the business. Statements had been made at the conference that railway construction was carried out largely with an eye to •votes and from the conclusions he 'had been able to draw there was a of truth in them, the delegates seemed to be-seized with the position, but appeared to be content _ t* leave things as they were, knowing, perhaps, that it was a pretty big task to tackle to alter the matters.. There was no co-operation between the Public Works Department, which constructed the railways; and the Railway Department, which ran them. Hie 1 üb‘lic Works Department built, railways without taking into consideration the question of whether they would pay or not, and then handed them over to the Railway Department, expecting the latter them pay- - . FOr the third time, said Mr Major, ifce conference asked the Government to appoint a Minister for Commerce --but there was not much chance of such a Minister being appointed in the •near future. Mr Massey had said that the" appointment of such a Minister would in«|fere with the work ot other "departing. That was indeed a poor excuse for not complying with 'the wishes of the commercial community. Air Alaifer briefly' touched on other matters whiVcame before the conference. Mr R. Brown (chairman) said that there was considerable truth in what Mr Majorffiad said concerning political control of our railways. The need for someone to act as a connecting link between the conference and the Government, and the failure of the conference to secure more adequate attention being -given to the recommendations if made to the Government on matters of vital interest to the business men of the Dominion, was to be deplored. On the motion ot Mr Brown, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Mr for~his interesting report.