PRICE-FIXING COMPLEXITIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22346, 18 February 1936, Page 10

PRICE-FIXING COMPLEXITIES

A request has been made to the Government that it should now fix the retail price of flour to protect traders from the "detrimental effect of price-cutting." There may be many shopkeepers who are prepared to sell flour for little or no profit as a means of attracting other trade, but it cannot be denied that the claim is a reasonable one in view of the action already taken governing the price of wheat and the price of bakers' flour. The point- of the moment, however, is that it is inevitable that as soon a' 3 price control is started the Government will be bombarded with appeals for its extension. The moment that apparent security is provided for one group of producers or traders other groups begin to form for a similar objective. Time may alter the common attitude, but vision is not greatly in evidence at the outset. The Minister of Industries and Commerce says that all side issues cannot be dealt with at once and mentions that there are fully 50 questions to be attended to in connection "with wheat and flour control. That there should be so many complementary matters is not surprising. The complexity of such a scheme is revealed gradually. Each decision is liable to create the need for further decisions. The scope of the thing fans out wider and wider as the claims of equity or the pressure of politics are applied in ever-growing strength. The Government has in mind much more ambitious schemes for price guarantees, and the experience it is now beginning to acquire in regard to wheat and flour should convince it of the necessity of first exploring the whole question and tracing out the line of its probable ramifications, not only for its own sake but for the sake of the country.