PROFITEERING

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 140, 10 December 1918, Page 3

PROFITEERING

LEGISLATION TO PREVENT IT.

An amendment of the Regulation of Trade and Commerce Act was introduced by Governor-General's Message last night and passed. • . " . Sir Francis Bellgaye a detailed explanation of it in the Legislative Council. It,was legislation, he said, against what , was known as "profiteering." They had a precedent for it ■ in the Trade and Commerce Act, which already forbade the action by a combination which tnis amendment made unlawful for an individual. The amendment made it unlawful to sell any goods at a price unreasonably high, if the opportunity of obtaining such a price arose from war/conditions. The price was deemed to .be unreasonably high if it produced more than a fair and reasonable profit, (the profit on 4th August, 1914, with a fair and reasonable, addition for^_.war conditions of freight charges and business' expenses). * The hoarding of goods was also made an offence. The maximum penalties were, for an individual £200; and for a company £1000. The section will remain in force for two years. Sir Francis Bell explained that it was better to have a simple Act', than one which went into great detail. ■ The Sherman Act, which was still ■ the governing .law in this matter in the United States of America, was an Act of four brief clauses. Everyone knew that the previous legislation in New Zealand had been effective, as everyone had been consulting his lawyer as to how he might evade it. , The penalty was rather high, but it was necessary to make it so, as legislation such as this was most effective as a "scare." "People realise that they are liable to a heavy penalty, and after all, we are a law-abiding people."

The clause was agreed to without division.