PRICE INQUIRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 31, 7 February 1939, Page 8

PRICE INQUIRY.

GROCERY LINES. WARNING BY MINISTER. NO PROFITEERING. Inquiries made by the Department of Industries and Commerce regarding current prices of various grocery lines 1 during the past few days are regarded as the logical sequel to Ministerial warnings that the Government will take steps to prevent profiteering 011 account of the import regulations. The Department has asked a number of Auckland wholesale and retail firms to supply returns showing current prices of both N'ew Zealand-made and imported lines. The goods concerned include tinned fruits, fish and asparagus. Recently the Minister of Industry and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, announced that bis attention had been drawn to newspaper reports of increases in the prices of grocery lines allegedly affected by the import regulations. These increases were said in several cases to have been brought about through some wholesalers advancing their prices for remaining stocks in anticipation of a shortage, but the Minister declared that there was. in his opinion, no justification for the trend. Mr. Sullivan remarked that heavy penalties were already prescribed under the Hoard of Trade Act and the Prevention of Profiteering Act. He added that officers of his Department were investigating alleged increases. The inquiries which have just been made by the Department in Auckland are construed as a continuation of that investigation—the routine procedure in reported cases of unjustified increases.