CONTROL NEED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 38, 14 February 1945, Page 6

CONTROL NEED

IN GROCERY TRADE

REHABILITATION ASPECT

"Rehabilitation was one of the major matters discussed at the annual conference of the New Zealand Master Grocers' Federation, held in Nelson lest week," said Mr. R. M. Barker, who represented the Auckland Association, in an interview to-day. Mr. Barker read a paper to the conference, surveying various aspects of the problem. He urged the need for encouraging returned servicemen wherever possible to take up their old occupations, which, in the long run, would react to their own interests. It was essential to avoid bankruptcies and uneconomic ventures through the acquisition of new businesses by inexperienced or unfinancial men, and some form of control was needed. It was a question of control or chaos. His association had promoted a remit advocating the prevention of undue aggregation of businesses for the duration and a year afterwards. - If it were proposed to open a. new shop there were, in Mr. Barker's view, three questions which constituted a condition precedent: (1) Is the opening of the shop justified, having-regard to existing shops, and also its potential earning capacity? (2) Has the applicant sufficient experience to enable him to operate the business. successfully? (3) Has the applicant the requisite finance? He considered applications should be investigated fully and impartially by a competent authority and suggested the authority should comprise an independent chairman, a representative of the master grocers, and of the Grocers' Assistants' Union, and a Government representative (from the Rehabilitation Department if a rehabilitation loan is involved).Mr Barker stressed that there was no desire to handicap returned men. On the contrary, it was desired that they should- be helped, and not allowed to get. into an uneconomic business. He warned employers not to" expect - wholly efficient service immediately on their return from grocery assistants who. had been some years in the forces and had now qualified for senior rates of pay. If the employee showed no enthusiasm or desire to progress it was the : employer's ■ duty to awake and instil those qualities in.him. Another point mentioned by; Mr. Barker was that many "rejects," had entered the trade during the war because of shortage of labour. Some relaxation of the proportion clause in the award was desirable in cases where an employer had reinstated a former employee or given a position to a returned man if wartime "lag" was to be overcome. Speaking to-day on the matter, Mr. Barker 'said the conference agreed that some control was needed after the war to avoid the indiscriminate opening of businesses, with attendant price-cutting. A resolution was carried agreeing to formulate a plan and submit it to the Government for consideration. A more liberal subsidy of the wages of returned men entering the trade after war service was another recommendation made to the Government by the conference.