PRICE CONTROL PLANNED AS FEATURE OF PEACE-TIME ECONOMY

Evening Star, Issue 26136, 25 June 1947, Page 4

PRICE CONTROL PLANNED AS FEATURE OF PEACE-TIME ECONOMY

A. complete overhaul of the price control system in New Zealand, including consumer representation of any new tribunal or commission, is foreshadowed in preparations being made to put the existing authority on a permanent, peacetime basis. It has been forecast in Wellington that the readjustment will be undertaken in the light of post-war requirements, and it is expected that the control system will be tightened. More staff is expected, both for accountancy and policing, if the controls are to be more effective, and the decisions delivered more quickly.

Dunedin manufacturers and importers have made frequent complaints about the delays in obtaining price orders for goods they are handling, and point for evidence to articles in storage urgently needed by the consuming public, which cannot be sold until the Price Tribunal has issued an order.

No Local Authority

Representations were made several months ago by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce for local officers of the department to ‘be given authority to fix prices, a method that would obviate the existing delays in waiting for decisions from Wellington, but the tribunal objected, on the grounds that geographical disparities would be inevitable. Regulations gazetted in September, 1935), provided that prices of goods and .services should not be raised above the prices ruling at that date, except as might, be authorised by the Minister of inaustries and Commerce. These regulations were superseded by the Control of Prices Emergency Regulations, of December. 1939, which constituted the present Price Tribunal. The general functions of the tribunal are to investigate complaints concerning prices charged for goods or services, to issue orders fixing the maximum or minimum wholesale or retail prices at which any particular goods may be sold, and to take any steps which, in its opinion, might be necessary to prevent profiteering or the exploitation of the public. Foodstuffs generally, and sugar, wheat, and flour specifically, were

brought under the control of the Government by the September, 1939, emergency regulations, About a year later the Economic Stabilisation Conference recommended stabilised prices for 38 commodities, comprising the more important foodstuffs, clothing, fares, fuel, and lighting. In December, 1942, measures were taken to ensure as far as possible that the level of retail prices should not exceed that then ruling. Provision was made for the stabilisation of weekly rentals, wage rates, and a varied range of essential items of household consumption. The increased regulation of ' prices by governmental control has. been a feature of economic policy in New Zealand over a considerable number of years. Nation-wide control of prices of essential commodities was resorted to in 1914-18, when the motives were the necessity of purchasing at reasonable prices commodities required for war purposes, and the protection of the consumer from the . full force of the abnormal rises in prices caused by scarcity. Wheat, flour, and bread prices ".have been controlled almost without intermission since 1915, superphosphates since 1931, and motor spirits from 1933.