REDEMPTION OF COUPONS

Hawera Star, Volume L, 21 February 1931, Page 5

REDEMPTION OF COUPONS

EXTENDED PERIOD ALLOWED. ONLY CASH DISCOUNTS IN , FUTURE. ,Bv IVl*>grapb —Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 20. Referring to* the Government’s intention, announced in December last to gazette regulations prohibiting the issue and redemption of all trading •stamp* coupons c xcopt cash discount coupons issued by individual retailers, the Minister of Industries and Commerce has made the following statement : The issue and redemption of trading stamps by trading stamp companies was rendered illegal by the Trading Stamps Prohibition and Discount Stamps Issue Act, 1908. A Supreme Court judgment held, however, that in some respects the Act did not apply to certain forms of trading coupons. In view of this judgment it was, therefore, considered that action under the Act to prevent trading coupon companies operating would ibe unsuccessful. To a great extent the trading stamps which the Trading Stamps Act was originally intended to cover have for many years ceased to be issued, and there appeared to be no urgent necessity for amendment of the Aict to cover special circumstances. The practice, however, of offering coupons to retail purchasers has for the past year or so grown to considerable dimensions. In the majority of cases the issue and redemption of coupons under the various systems at present employed would not be illegal under the Trading Stamps Prohibition and Discount Stamps Issue Act, 1908. In was intended, therefore, to issue regulations with the two-fold purpose of (1) amending the apparent defect in the 1908 Act (in view of the Supreme Court decision) and (2) enlarging the scope of the present Trading Stamps Prohibition Act, 1908, to include all forms of trading coupons. • In the recent action taken against a ecupon trading company in the lower court at Auckland the magistrate held that a. breach of the 1908 Act had been committed and that nob only is the issue of coupon trading companies’ coupons thereby made illegal, but their redemption is also made illegal. The Government recognises that trading coupon companies and retailers (in Government recognises that trading coupon companies and retailers (in view of the Supreme Court decision) had acted in good faith in the sale and purchase, distribution and redemption of trading coupons, the Government to-day gazetted regulations restraining trading coupon companies from disposing of their assets without the consent of the Minister of Industries and Commerce.

Finally, to overcome the present difficulty and to deal effectively with the general question the Government proposes to bring down amending legislation to provide for (1) the extension of the term of coupons not contemplated under the “trading coupon” to include other forms 1908 Act; (2) prohibition of the issue of all coupons other tha?i cash discount coupons after June 30, 1931; (3) to make legal the redemption of coupons up to September 30, 1931.