PRICE OF HARVESTERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2568, 31 July 1909, Page 5

PRICE OF HARVESTERS.

AN AUSTRALIAN ROYAL COMMISSION. REPORTS PRESENTED TO PARLIAMENT. United Press Association— Copriuaur. (Received July MELBOURNE, July 30. The report ot the Royal Commission on stripper harvesters has been tabled. The majority report finds that only one •firm sold at £65, the price for harvesters fixed by- Parliament. Rates of interest 1 charged on time payment sales range from 11 to 53 per cent, of the cost, the cost of selling and distributing Of machines averaging slightly over 24 per cent., and sometimes running as high as 50 per cent, of the cost price, 'which in the ease of Sunshine harvesters is about £47 for a 5-foot machine. The Commission’s recommendations include a complete transfer of industrial control to the Commonwealth, the constitution of a Board of Trade, with ample power which may he exercised in the interests of the consumer, that steps be taken to prevent sellers charging exorbitant rates of interest, the Commision suggesting that the limit be 10 per cent. The report expresses the belief that Mr. MaKay .would, if there were no< outside competition, soon be able to command the whole home trade in harvesters.

Mr. Sampson, in a minority report, disagrees with the transfer of industrial control to the Commonwealth, and traverses several, other findings of the •majority report.