THE FRAGRANT WEED.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 807, 3 May 1910, Page 4

THE FRAGRANT WEED.

•• i . THREATENED RISE IN PRICEB. CUT BATES TO END. Rumours of a threatened rise in th* prices of various brands of tobacco hav« been current in town during the past week or so, but nothing alarming happened till tho other day, when one of Madame Nicotine's devoted' admirers wis asked to pay is. 2d. for his weekly plug —an advance of twopence. This latest aspect of the "increased cost of living" led to some inquiries by-a representative of The Dominion yesterday as to the preciso naturo and extent of the cause t< which the rise, or, to be strictly accurate —for the increase has not been generally noticed—the threatened rise, is to be at tributed. . One of the leading Tetailers in tho city said that the action of the Merchants' Association in raising, the standard prices and stiffening the conditions of business had forced tho retailers to seriously consider tho position. One particular line of tobacco tho shops were in the position of having, to sell at ox actual loss, while certain, others were retailed at snch a small margin of profit that a microscope would almost Geem to bo required for its assessment. The rates fixed by the merchants, plus th« d W. Pws 2J per cent, if the account wa» not settled within the week, were all factors which thinned the maigin of profit. He added that the retailers were now dftbating tho question of/ holding a meetist' to discuss tho position. Ihe responsibility for th* predicament of the retailers having been laid by one of their number upon tho shoulders of tho Merchants' Association, tho reporter sought a member of that body and asked •for a statement of their side of the case. Ho replied:"The crux of the whole matter is tho insane cut-throat competition which has existed among the wholesale bouses during the past two and a half years. The wholesale houses during that period have not been altogether » happy family among themselves, ana everybody has been trying to undercut each other in the matter of prices—selling at cost, in fact.' They haw all com* to their senses now, with the result thai they are trading on a basis which afford* a fair margin of profit—a basis, by tb* way, which 13 twenty yeaxs old. Wellington was the very centre that went u> for rate-cutting. Auckland, Christclrarch, Dunedin have all continued to trade es the old basis. There is no pressure being exerted by the producers, • their tariff U as it was. Wo are simply reverting is a basis of trading that we should never have departed from." ,