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1903. NEW ZEALAND.

TRUSTS AND ANTI-TRUST LEGISLATION (REPORT THEREON).

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Having decided to bring forward this session legislation with the object of preventing the formation of pools, rings, and trusts in connection with food-supplies, clothing, and housing the people, I deemed it advisable and imperative to obtain the fullest information possible from other countries through the Agent-General and the Government Agent in San Francisco, and accordingly Acts of Parliament, Eeports, &c, as affecting the various countries wherein trusts flourish and in which law exists for suppression and regulation, have been obtained. These papers, together with much information obtained from other sources, have been classified and precised by the Secretary for Labour, and the result is now submitted herewith as a Parliamentary Paper, placing in the hands of members, in a concrete and practical form, full information respecting combines, pools, rings, and trusts, their effects upon trade, and the results accruing to the manipulators themselves. This will, I hope, enable members to become conversant with the various phases of the subject, giving them a full grasp of the situation, and, with the knowledge of what has occurred and what is transpiring m other countries, the result may be the passing of such legislation as will prevent trade monopoly obtaining in this colony. B. J. Seddon, Minister for Labour.

The Seceetaky, Department of Labour, to the Hon. the Minister of Labour. Sib, — Department of Labour, Wellington, sth June, 1903. I have the honour to submit herewith a report on trusts and anti-trust legislation in the United States and Europe. Edwaed Tkegeae, Secretary for Labour. The Eight Hon. R. J. Seddon, P.C., Minister of Labour.

PART I.—TEUSTS IN THE UNITED STATES. Happy is the people whose statesmen foresee and prevent grievances instead of waiting to experience them to cure them. In dealing with this trust problem and the dangers of vast accumulations of wealth in single private hands we are seeking to lay down beforehand the law of a healthy life, and not to grope after a cure for a deadly sickness.—(Senator Hoar, in the Senate, Washington, 6th January, 1903.) So loosely are the terms employed in regard to combinations in industrial and commercial enterprise that it is necessary for the sake of clearness and accuracy to have a few definitions of words for use in this report. A "trust" is defined in the "Century Dictionary" as "an organization for the control of several corporations under one direction by the device of a transfer by the stockholders in each corporation of at least a majority of the stock to a central committee or board of trustees, who l issue in return to such stockholders respectively certificates showing in effect that, although they have parted with their stock and the consequent voting-power, they are still entitled to dividends or to share in the profits—the object being to enable the trustees to elect directors in all the corporations, to control and suspend at pleasure the work of any, and thus to economize expenses, regulate production, and defeat competition." This admirable exposition of the conduct and motives of a trust proper (i.e., a board of " trustees ") is altogether too rigid for the present purpose, and unless we take the concluding passage as its essence—viz., that a trust is formed " to economize expenses, regulate production, and defeat competition " —we should be unable to include under the word " trust" several of the American and most of the European combinations known by that name. "We will therefore use more simple and general definitions, and consider that— A " pool " is a combination or agreement between certain persons or firms in order to influence the market by controlling output, dividing territory, extending trade, and sometimes determining prices. A " ring " is a similar combination, but devoted more especially to controlling sellingprices. A " trust " is a corporation or combination of corporations into unity for the purpose of amalgamating- plants and properties, economizing expenses, buying and selling to best advantage, ousting competition, and controlling markets. It is acknowledged both by friends and enemies that all corporations are not to be considered trusts —this not only on account of their organization or motive for existence, but because many of them have influence for good, and remain not only above reproach, but above suspicion. Such combinations are not to be assailed by having hurled at them the word " trust," which, as we shall see, has become in the mouths of many an epithet applied only to corporations believed to be evil and of infamous character. We will leave out of the question all such irreproachable combinations, and confine our attention to those who in the brunt of the industrial conflict are the mark of invective and attack. Corporations such as the Standard Oil Company, the United States Steel Corporation,' the Consolidated Tobacco Company, the Anthracite Coal Trust, &c, are absolute storm-centres of industrial life in the United States.