UNFAIR TRADING?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 163, 12 July 1935, Page 8

UNFAIR TRADING?

POWER BOARD POLICY.

RETAIL DEPARTMENT. SALE OF STOVES AND HEATERS. It is the opinion of several leading members of the electrical trade in Auckland tlint if the proposal at present being considered by the Auckland Electric Power Board that it should open a retail department and sell stoves and water heaters to consumers for cash, or on deferred payments, as well as hiring electric stoves to consumers at a low monthly rental, is approved, the board will be in the position of a local body seeking to take advantage of its privileged position to compete in a market which was being developed by the private trader before power boards were ever thought of.

One electrical dealer, while admitting that the municipal electricity department in Christcliurch carried 011 trading activities, pointed out that in Canterbury the market had been developed by the local body and by private enterprise simultaneously. That was not the position in Auckland.

There were numbers of reasons why people .did not purchase electric ranges and water heaters, and the principal one was capital outlay involved. The trade claimed that apparatus was at present sold at the economic value and if it was sold at unremunerativc prices that would constitute unfair trading. It was said that the Power Board would provide facilities for the purchase of any approved make of stove or water heater, and if this meant any standard make the position would not be so serious. However, the Power Board was prepared to Handle only stoves and water heaters which were made to its own specifications.

The position made even more serious by a proposal to service apparatus for the first two years free of cost and for the next three years for the cost of replacements only. This was competition which 110 private trader could face.

Other traders considered that if the board desired to increase its load by popularising the tise ot electricity, it could attain its object by subsidising the traders to accelerate the sale of equipment. This could be dbiw by granting a bonus for every stove or heater sold, thus enabling the seller to quote more attractive prices.

Most of the firms questioned concerning the problem were apprehensive of the effect of the competition on their business, and many took the stand that, as private enterprise had been responsible for developing the market in Auckland, it was unfair trading if the board came into the field. It is understood however that the proposal has still to come Tierorc the board for final endorsement.