COAL MERCHANTS AT WESTPORT CHARGED : PRICES AND BAG SIZES

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 October 1948, Page 8

COAL MERCHANTS AT WESTPORT CHARGED : PRICES AND BAG SIZES

’ Lengthy legal argument was heard by Mr T. E. Maunsell, S.M. in the S.M. in the Magistrate’s Court at Westport yesterday when charges under the Control of Prices Act were brought by the Price Tribunal against three Westport coal dealers, Craddock’s Transport Ltd., Mockett and Sons and Perkins Bros. Mr H. A. Maitland appeared for the Price Tribunal and Mr M. B. Scully for all of the defendants.

The basis of the charges, laid in the alternative, was of reducing the weight oi’ increasing the price, said Mr Maitland. The dealers had assumed a right which they did not possess to amend their loads and charges. He said that it was not the province of the court to fix prices, despite a good case by the dealers for a revision because of increased costs and other factors. Mr Scully admitted the formalities such as charging 8s for two sacks of coal.on July 1, 1948, that the sacks each contained IGOlbs of coal, and that the charge on September 1, 1939, was 4s a sack, holding approximately 1901bs of coal. The Act came into force on November 25, 1947, at which date and for some time before, the coal had been sold in 1601 b containers, •so they could be said ordinarily to contain that amount. With regard to the price, Mr Scully said that the charge was that the coal was sold in excess of the price ruling in 1939, but the price then was 8s for two bags as at the present time. There was nothing to show what the standard was in those days and custom did not apply to the case. Mr Maitland claimed that the Act of 1947 was really a substitution of the price control emergency regulations in force during the war and had only been put in statutory form. The point was that the Act was new but the law was not. Mr Scully claimed that the Act did not re-enact the previous regulations. Mr Maitland said that the weight of the bag of coal had been wrongly reduced to IGOlbs. The Magistrate reserved his decision. .