RISING PRICES

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4860, 18 June 1936, Page 5

RISING PRICES

GOVERNMENT ACTION.

' “WATCHING DEVELOPMENTS.”

Denial of a statement that the Government intended to appoint accountants to investigate the affairs of important firms, particularly as they related to the effect of the new industrial legislation, was made by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, on Tuesday.

“Such a suggestion has no foundation at all,” said Mr. Savage, “because it would imply, for one thing, that the Government is out looking for trouble. As I have said time and again, from the public platform and elsewhere, we have no intention whatever of harassing business people and putting obstacles in their way. At the same time, this does not mean that the Government will not watch very closely any tendency on the part of any industry to take undue advantage of changed conditions. “There can be no argument against the fact that if one industry is allowed to exploit the people and make undue profits it can only do that at the expense of some other industry or the consumers. We intend to watch developments of that sort and if necessary to make use of all the powers that are already available under the Board of Trade Act for dealing with exploitation. “In the meantime our desire is to play the part of a referee, seeing that both sides get a fair deal, because we have already recognised that the man who pays wages is entitled to consideration as well as the man who receives them.”