TRADE PRACTICES ACT

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28829, 25 February 1959, Page 20

TRADE PRACTICES ACT

Doubts On Approach Of Government

The Trade Practices Act seemed to be making provisions to remove a mountain when only a small hill was involved, Mr E. Nees said in his presidential address to the annual conference of the New Zealand Wholesale Hardware Guilds* Federation in Christchurch. He believed that there were trade practices in New Zealand which were detrimental to the public interest, but too often the Government’s approach was

“what is the most we can do’’ instead of “what is the least we need do.”

Among other problems, an act like this meant a great deal of labour expense, and that expense was generally the highest for the business world, he said. Sufficient concern was not given to the “hours upon hours’’ that were spent in working the controls that might be incorporated. It meant hundreds of thousands of hours for the commercial community, and an almost endless number for the public service. “I hope the provisions of the act are not going to be used as a rod to worry individual firms and make it more difficult for them to work, while the Government itself has still the freedom to restrain trade by giving the right to some to do certain things, and refusing that right to others,’’ Mr Nees added. “You already see this in some aspects of the handling of import control.”