PUBLIC INQUIRY SOUGHT

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27710, 14 July 1955, Page 14

PUBLIC INQUIRY SOUGHT

LABOUR FEDERATION REQUEST (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 13. The Federation of Labour wanted the Government to set up a public commission of inquiry, said Mr P. M. Butler today in a further statement on flagon beer prices. Mr Butler, who had protested on behalf of the Federation of Labour over flagon beer prices, said he wanted to know the reasons for the Government’s tardiness in acting on the matter. He referred to “conflicting statements” by officers of the Price Control Division in various parts of the country, and said they indicated the possibility of a “comfortable donothing policy being unceremoniously upended by public resentment.” He added: “The Government, which has allowed the public to be • overcharged for about two years, is suddenly prodded into activity by our protest, which has been widely supported by the newspapers and others.” Mr Butler said he would like to know how many complaints of overcharging had been lodged with the aivtsron and on which no action had been taken.

Mr Butler said that although a suggestion by the Taranaki Licensed’ Victuallers’ Association that there were substantial reasons for believing that the retail price of liquor had bedn the subject of an understanding between the federation and the Government was “too silly for words,” he thought that the history of the overcharging savoured of some understanding somewhere. The public, he said, were entitled to have all the facts brought into the open. “We therefore request that the Government, in view of all the statements made, set up a public commission of inquiry,” he said. “Only by this procedure will the Government be able, if it can, to indicate its bona fides in the case.”