STATE COMPETITION THREAT

Evening Star, Issue 22379, 1 July 1936, Page 13

STATE COMPETITION THREAT

IF PRICES RISE LABOUR WON'T HAVE LEGISLATION THWARTED [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, June 30. “ If increases in the prices of commodities because of the rise in wages cannot be prevented by the regulations it will be done by State competition,” said the Prime Minister (the Jit. Hon. M. J. Savage) in an interview this evening after a Cabinet meeting. The important question of price fixation was discussed by Cabinet during the day, and its importance from the point of view of the Government, as well as that of the people, was emphasised by Mr Savage. Ho indicated that the Government would not hesitate to take direct competitive action if prices rose to what he described as an unnecessary level. The object of the Government was to have distribution placed on a more equitable basis than in the past. When people were raising prices, said Mr Savage, they should not lose sight of the fact that they were going to have an added turnover as the result of the Government’s legislation, and this would be some recompense for the increased wages. The Department of Industries and Commerce was shaping regulations now for the purpose of preventing an unnecessary rise in prices. “ It just comes to this,” said Mr Savage “we have a mandate from the people to bring about a more equitable distribution of the country’s production and give the people the benefit of the machine of science and increased production. If we raise wages and decrease the hours of labour and then allow prices to go up in the same ratio wo will have altered nothing.”