DRAPERY LINES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26197, 6 July 1946, Page 8

DRAPERY LINES

THE NEW PRICE ORDER CONFERENCE TO BE HELD (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, July 5. The automatic reduction of 2j per cent, in the wholesale price of almost every drapery line in the Dominion, which came into force on July 1 as the result of a special order by the Price Tribunal, has met with considerable opposition from the warehouses, and is operative mostly in theory at present, since the warehouses are refusing to send out the goods affected by the order. A conference to discuss the position which has arisen is to be held in Wellington between representatives of the manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers, the Prime Minister, Mr P. Fraser, and the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr D. G. Sullivan. The office of the Price Tribunal in the city to-day would not make available for publication a copy of the schedule of the items affected. It was stated at the office that the public would receive the benefit of the reduction, since the retailers’ margins of profit, based on the wholesale cost, would automatically follow the reduction trend.

"We have heard something of the kind,” was the reply to a question asked at the office of the Price Tribunal whether anything had been heard of the action of the warehousemen in refusing to send out the goods affected.

Most price orders are gazetted and are thus automatically made public, but this one setting a general reduction. has followed a different procedure. Warehousemen were advised that as from June 17 all stocks arriving after that date would bear a 2£ per cent, reduction on the automatic price mark schedule, and as from July 1, every item covered in the schedule would carry the same reduction. The advice came in a circular from the Price Tribunal’s head office in Wellington.