PROPRIETARY ARTICLES SALE RESTRICTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 20

PROPRIETARY ARTICLES SALE RESTRICTION.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I would like to draw attention to the Proprietary Articles Trade Association of New Zealand. This has lately been formed and includes merchants, manuf: : 'nrers and storekeepers all over New :d, the idea being to ensure a larger margin of profit for all tjese concerned. Small storekeepers everywhere are being pressed into this association under the threat that if they do not join they will not receive any more goods listed by the association (about six hundred lines). This means to say that s'.iould a small storekeeper or a large merchant sell one line beiow the agreed price then these men have the power to ruin them and close their store or warehouse, as they will be blacklisted and will get no more goods, the merchant being blacklisted also. Tin; margin of profit, I am led to believe, is 15 per cent for wholesalers and 25 per cent for retailers, making 40 per cent in all placed upon the already overburdened taxpayer. Are the people of Auckland going to stand this or are some of our business men sufficiently alive to petition Parliament in this matter? In conclusion I would like to mention that neither the organiser nor the secretary of this blacklisting association have Englisli names.—l am, etc., HENRY SHAW.