Price Control Straitjacket

Northern Advocate, 4 December 1947, Page 5

Price Control Straitjacket

WELLINGTON, Thu. (P.A.) The action of price control authorities is placing the whole garment industry in a straitjacket. says a statement by the New Zealand Council of Garment Manufacturers. The Price Tribunal’s restrictive actions, the statement says, is rendering more and more difficult the increased production of all essential clothing, including men’s, women’s and juveniles’ wear. “From evidence available to the council it is obvious that manufacturers’ margins have been very rigidly pegged in the past, and yet it is proposed to reduce these still further. “The extent of the reduction varies. “The Price Tribunal arbitrarily chops off 2\ per cent from the allowed rate, but this amounts to 11 per cent of the margin in some cases, ranging up to a 25 per cent cut in the margin in others.” EFFECT OF WAGES “Manufacturers maintain that, in view of the strict fixing of prices in the past, there can be no room for further cuts in this industry, cuts which not only require the manufacturer to absorb the higher cost of wages since October 1, but even reduce prices below what they were before that date. “While the council agrees with an adequate wage scale for industry, any increase in wages must be accompanied by an increase in the manufacturer's cost of production, and, consequently, in his selling price.’ There must obviously be a minimum below which margins could not be allowed to fall without throwing the industry into chaos, the statement concluded, but the Government’s general policy appeared to be to keep on re-| ducing the recovery of cost, irrespeet-i ive of the merits of the case, or without taking account of the need to encourage essential production.