BOARD OF TRADE

Dominion, Volume 17, Issue 290, 24 August 1923, Page 6

BOARD OF TRADE

NEW POWERS FOR MINISTER OF INDUSTRIES

A new Bill entitled the Board of Trade Amendment Bill, designed mainly to vest the powers previously conferred by the Board of Trade Act. 1919, upon the Board of Trade in the Minister of Industries and Commerce, was introduced by the Hon. Sir Francis Bell in the Legislative Council yesterday. The Bill also provides that the Governor-General may appoint any number of persons not exceeding live to act as an Advisory Board to the Minister, provision also being made for the appointment of associate members of the board. The Minister may delegate to any member or members of the Advisory Board, or any officer of the Department of Industries nnd Commerce the powers of judical inquiry and investigation conferred upon the Board of Trade. Nothing in the •mending Bill affects the title of the regulations, which shall continue to have full force and effect.

Sir Francis Bell outlined the measure and expaiined that the alternative would be to reconstitute the Board of Trade, but this was neither desirable nor practicable. Tho other definitions were identical with those in the existing Act with certain modifications.

The Hon. Sir Thomas Mackenzie expressed the hope that if the Board qf Trade was to be reconstituted, it would also be revivified as in the past it had not fulfilled its functions satisfactorily. The Hon. M. Cohen considered tha+ Now Zealand should have representation in New York, preferably by a commercial man of proved ability. The Bill was passed through all stages without further discussion.