PROFITEERING BILL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10639, 12 July 1920, Page 10

PROFITEERING BILL

LUXURY GOODS EXEMPTED. "A (VERT CLEVER SCHEME." In the House- of Commons, just feefore the departure of the last English mail for New Zealand, the new Profiteering Bill as amended by the Standing Committee, wag considereed. Sir Herbert Nield moved a new clause providing that it should not be necessary for the owners to supply particulars "of any secret process of preparation or of the ingredients used m the composition of a- "proprietary article," but authorising the Board of Trade to require that the cost of any such article should be furnished. Sir Robert Home, President of the Board of Trade, accepted the clause as offering a fair arrangement as between the public and the manufacturer. There were, he said, many secret processes of manufacture which) it would; be unfair to require that they should bo divulged. The new clause was agreed to. Sir Robert Home moved a new subsection providing that if the- Board of Trade are satisfied that any approved scheme secured an adequate supply to the home market of any iiv tides to which the principal. Act applied, the Board may by order exempt producers who comply with the scheme from any general investigation. He explained that the object of the subsection was to exempt, from tho -nausw luxury goods which could be sold at a high price. Commander Kenworthy suspected that the sub-section was meant to protect firms like Atessrs Coats. It was a very clever scheme to nullify any effect the Act might have on the operations of such firms. Sir Robert Home's amendment was carried by 192 votes to 47. - On the'motion of Sir Robert Horne, amendments' were agreed to providing that a profit shall not be deemed to be unreasonable if the percentage rate of profit does not exceed the pre-war percentage given to the relative expenses of carrying on the business. The report stage was concluded and the bill was read a third time.