TORCH PROFITEERING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24221, 13 February 1940, Page 10

TORCH PROFITEERING

PUBLIC OVERCHARGED HEAVY PENALTIES NOW SCANDAL TO END (From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON. Jan, 12. Black-out regulations made torchcarrying a necessary ' safeguard for each individual who has to be out after 4.30 p.m. on these short dark days of winter. The demand for batteries mounted up to some 40,000,000 every week, but supplies have been quite . unequal to the demand. The public have been victimised by racketeers in all directions. Not only has there been gross profiteering—sales at from 100 to 300 per cent, above fair prices—but also widespread fraud. A considerable trade has been done in faked batteries and in old ones boiled and warmed up and offered as new. But now the Central Price Regulation Committee has taken steps to put an end to this scandal. After inquiry is has issued a _ list of prices regarded as fair for British batteries under present conditions., From to-day shopkeepers who charge 5d or 6d for a 3Jd torch battery will be liable to complaint and prosecution. . Where profiteering is proved the penalties provided by the . Prices of v Goods Act are a fine up to £IOO or three months’ imprisonment or both, or, on conviction on indictment, a fine of £SOO or two years’ imprisonment or both. If the same offender appears a third time before a court he may be sent to penal servitude for a maximum of five years and barred from carrying on the same class of business when he comes out. .

Mr Raymond Evershed. K.C.. chairman of the Central Price Regulation Committee, says every effort is being made by British manufacturers to raise their output.

Used judiciously the torch is an indispensable accompaniment for each pedestrian, but there should always be a light-subduing element over the bulb, to obviate blinding flashes.