WICKED STOREKEEPERS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 10, 13 January 1908, Page 6

WICKED STOREKEEPERS.

SIR WILLIAM LYNE INDIGNANT

"I am continually being inundated with complaints about the local storekeepers who have raised the prices of all commodities without any justification," Sir William Lyne, Federal Treasurer, told a Sydney Herald representative recently. "They have been at this game ever since the tariff was introduced, but they will soon find their level," he added, with a significant smile. "Two ladies of my acquaintance who happen to know something about the tariff and its effect have been talking very severely to ( some of these unscrupulous storekeepers, and I think matters will very soon come down to their normal condition. Why, do you know," the Federal Treasurer, growing indignant, and rising in his chair, remarked, "these shopkeepers have been raising the prices of goods which were never on the tariff at all. They started that game when the tariff was brought down, and they have been at it ever since. "Oh! These storekeepers seem to hate been acting regardless of all circumstances and regardless of reason. In some cases prices have been raised both on imported and of locallyproduced goods, and the lame excuse has always been that the prices have been! affected by the tariff. They have been reaping a harvest unjustly, and by wicked misrepresentation of -fa'ctft to their customers." "Then you have transferred your anger- from the importers to the retail traders?" I "Of course, I don't know the internal arrangements between the importers, and the retailers; All that 1 knoiv is that the consumers have; been suffering. , They have "been fleeced in many instances. I cannot say whether the importers have been playing the same trick on the storekeepers that has been played by them on the public. Nevertheless, numerous complaints have been made to me in writing, and many persons have spoken to me personally about these tactics, but the people are gradually 'discovering where they are unfairly treated." "What do yoU propose to do ■to

rectify matters?" Sir William was asked. . , '. „ "I don't propose to do anything," he said, "because I can't do anything. The remedy is in the hands of the consumers. They must be on the alert, make themselves acquainted with the. real position of affairs, and then once and for all 'bump out' those storekeepers who have been do-, ing these things."