PRICE CONTROL “HOLIDAY” WANTED BY RETAILERS

Grey River Argus, 23 February 1949, Page 3

PRICE CONTROL “HOLIDAY” WANTED BY RETAILERS

TIMARU, Feb. 22

A partial relaxation oi price control will be asked for by the New Zealand Retailers’ Federation, according to a press statement released at the annual conference of the federation at Timaru vesterday. Moving the remit, Mr J. A. Stenberg (Auckland) said that his association favoured the relaxation of price control on a selected range of commodities for an experimental period of six months. “We feel that the supply position of many lines will enable competition adequately to control prices,” said Mr Stenberg. "The Government has already admitted that by recently abandoning price control on a sus'btantial range of fruit and vegetables. “We suggest that each trade group in the federation should noipinate a reasonable range of lines from which control could be lifted. At the end of six months the position could be reviewed to see whether or not the experiment could be extended to other lines,” he said. An amendment that the removal of mice control from a range of lines should be permanent and not experimental was withdrawn after several delegates said that control had been in operation for nearly 10 years, and' any relaxation needed to be gradual. It was left to each trade group to select lines which were in adequate supply, the lines to be collected and forwarded to the Minister, of Industries and Commerce (Mr A. H. Nordmeyer) with a request that they be freed from price control for six months, when the position could be revised by all interested parties.