COMMERCIAL TRUSTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 243, 11 September 1935, Page 9

COMMERCIAL TRUSTS.

NOTICE OF AMENDING BILL

Notice of his intention to introduce the Commercial Trusts Amendment Bill was given by the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) in the House yesterday. The fact that a few minutes earlier five petitions had been presented asking that the amending legislation should not he allowed to proceed indicates that the Bill will not have an undisputed passage. The petitions, which were all largely signed, were presented by Mr A. M. Samuel. Mr W. Nash. Mr F. Lye, Mr J. A. Nash, and Air K. J. Holyoake. The Bill, it is understood, is designed to restrict price-cutting in respect of certain classes of proprietary, goods, particularly in the grocery trade, and it is likely that the Government will proceed with the measure during the present session. The petitioners claim that the Commercial Trusts Act of 1910 has protected the people of New Zealand from “the worst evil of modern life—high food prices,” and that the necessities of life should be available at a reasonably low price, without interfering, with fair wages. The petitioners view the proposed amendments with “concern and fear,” and state, that they will have the effect of placing a commercial trust beyond the law in certain events. They would constitute “a dangerous departure from the letter and spirit of the Act,” and would “legislate for a class and not for the whole people.”