PRICE CONTROL DIVISION

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27637, 19 April 1955, Page 7

PRICE CONTROL DIVISION

Approach To Auckland Footwear Firms WHOLESALER CRITICISES PROCEDURE (Neto Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 18. A questionnaire bearing no name but said to come from the Price Control Division is being sent out to footwear wholesalers. It asks questions which an Auckland wholesaler described as “impertinent.” The form, he said, was brought into his office by a man late on Friday afternoon. The man said he was from the Price Control Division and would call later to pick it up. The form is typewritten, and on one side of a foolscap sheet. It is headed, “Survey of Footwear Wholesalers.” “It would take a week’s audit to find some of the answers,” said the wholesaler. The form seeks answers to its questions for the years 1952, 1953, and 1954, and asks for two samples of each type of footwear sold. “That’s just ridiculous,” said the wholesaler. “We cary 164 different types of shoe. Under the heading “finance,” the questionnaire seeks details of availability of bank overdraft and overseas exchange and whether retailers demand more accommodation.

Details of profits, sales, cost of goods purchased, t and selling expenses are also wanted. “My firm is not going to give this information,” said the wholesaler. “If the answers fell into wrong hands, the firm could have a great deal of harm done.

“The Government gets some of the financial questions answered on our income tax forms, and that information is supposed to be kept confidential. The Price Control Division has no right to ask such impertinent questions, ’ he said.