TRADE UNDER LICENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22903, 10 June 1936, Page 8

TRADE UNDER LICENCE

The logical conclusion of the adoption of the recommendations of the Industries and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives, to which were referred petitions against the operation of chain store pharmacies, is that every business that is conducted in the Dominion must be licensed by the Government. The Committee is apparently not impressed with the organisation of the pharmaceutical service and it is recommended by it that the chemists who are now in business should he allowed six months within which they should reduce their present scale of prices while at the same time providing adequate payment for services rendered. If, however, their business is not so organised at the expiry of that period as to admit of a satisfactory adjustment of prices, the Minister of Industries and Commerce should then issue licences to such companies and persons as may be determined by him, including, it may be presumed, Messrs Boots, Ltd., who have commenced business in New Zealand, but have refrained from extending their operations pending the investigation by the Committee of the claim that it would not be in the public interest that a chain of pharmacies such as the firm has established in Great Britain should be permitted in New Zealand. And. not unmindful of the general policy of the party to which the majority of its members belong, the parliamentary committee also recommends that the Government should inquire into the possibility of the establishment of a national pharmacy service. This recommendation and the recommendation that under certain conditions the Government may issue licences enabling companies and persons to conduct a pharmaceutical business illustrate fairly clearly the class of thought that animates the party which is politically dominant in the country at the present time. If chemists may be permitted to carry on business only under licence issued by the Government, the principle that would be applied to their ease must be capable of extension to all other businesses. If it is accepted, there must, as long as the existing regime exercises sway, be a general regimentation of the business and industrial life of the community. Some of the utterances of the Minister of Industries and Commerce have contained a hint that the principle of licensing would be applied to manufacturing industry in the Dominion, and from the licensing of manufactures it would not be a very long step to the licensing of butchers’ shops, of grocery stores, of drapery establishments, and, in fact, of all forms of business. When that step is taken, all trade and commerce in the Dominion will be conducted under the paternal eye, and subject to the control, of a member of the Government.