Price freeze prosecutions begin

Press, 25 September 1982, Page 6

Price freeze prosecutions begin

PA - Wellington Prosecutions for breaches of the price freeze have been started by the Trade and Industry Department, said the department's Deputy Secretary (Industries). Mr D. E. Homewood, yesterday. Two instructions were in the hands of Crown solicitors — one in Auckland and one in Wellington, Mr Homewood said. The department would not reveal any details of the cases until they were heard in court, he said. Early fixtures were being sought in the District Court. "At present, six other cases of apparent contraventions. including some in the South Island, are under examination and further instructions to Crown solicitors will follow," Mr Homewood said. "All cases where prices

are found not to be in order are now being considered to see whether a prosecution is warranted, and so action on prosecutions will continue " Labour's spokesman on consumer affairs, Mrs Ann Hercus. said the prosecutions were a belated start, but it would not have every trader in the country "trembling in their boots." ’ "I am frankly becoming increasingly cynical about the so-called freeze and the statement that all illegal price increases will ‘now be considered’ to see if a prosecution action will follow makes me even more cynical. "National's ‘price freeze' has been working for more than three months, and yet that is an admission that only now is the possibility of prosecution being taken even slightly seriously," Mrs Hercus said.