FURTHER POWERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 302, 22 December 1939, Page 3

FURTHER POWERS.

FOR PRICE TRIBUNAL.

CONTROL OF PROFITEERING.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Thursday. Additional powers are given the Price Investigation Tribunal In regulations issued to-night under the Emergency Regulations Act passed by Parliament in September. Explanation of the regulations was given by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, who said the purpose was to clothe the tribunal with extra powers, which experience had shown were desirable and which would make for still more effective administration of the law relating to the control of prices and , profiteering. "Up to the present," said Mr. Sullivan, "the tribunal has functioned under the Board of Trade Act and has exercised powers delegated to it by the Minister. To facilitate the work of the tribunal in dealing with applications for price increases the Government lias now given directly to the tribunal powers which formerly were exercised only by delegation. *To enable such powers to be properly exercised the tribunal has bL-en constituted under the regulations themselves and its powers and functions are iset out in the regulations. "The tribunal has up to the present been constituted only as an advisory board under the Board of Trade Act, 1919, and the Board of Trade Amendment Act, 1923. The present members of the Price Investigation Tribunal, Mr. Justice Hunter and Mr. H. L. Wise, continue in office under the new regulations. "Among the additional powers conferred on the tribunal is the power to issue price orders fixing the wholesale or retail price of any goods therein specified, or fixing margins within which any such goods may be bought or sold. Any sale made subsequent to the issue of a price order which is not in conformity with such order is an offence against the regulations." The Minister eaid he hoped that in addition to giving more effective control over prices in the interests of the public, the regulations would also prove of advantage to traders in enabling applications to be dealt with even more expeditiously than had been the case j in the past.