PRICE CONTROL SCHEME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23378, 21 June 1939, Page 12

PRICE CONTROL SCHEME

Yet another instance of the Government's desire to exercise control over all forms of industry and trade is to be found in its regulations governing price increases. Its plans in this respect are so clumsy that it is not surprising they should have drawn an emphatic protest from the Auckland Master Grocers' Association. Indeed, the indications are that, if the Price Investigation Tribunal is not to be regarded as a colossal and transparent piece of administrative bluff, the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan, is merely endeavouring to embarrass trade by loading on to his advisory body a volume of work with which it cannot hope to keep pace. Under the terms of the regulations, every contemplated price increase affecting practically any of the commodities in everyday household use must be communicated in advance to the tribunal, which will then have to decide whether the proposed increases are reasonable or not. While it is only right that extortionate prices should be prevented, no more cumbersome scheme could possibly have been devised. As the Auckland grocers point out, an increase in the price of one commodity may affect a dozen others, but each item must be the subject of special submission to the tribunal. Admittedly, merchants are free to charge higher prices after notifying the tribunal of their intention so to do, but they must then take the full risk of having their new rates disallowed. The ultimate effect on business will bo to accentuate the existing uncertainty occasioned by rising costs of production and distribution and by a hand-to-mouth policy of importing, and the only firms that will possibly be able to face the position will be large concerns with a substantial turnover. Like many other schemes advanced by the present Government, the price-fixing plan, in its present form, is bound to react against the small tradesman.