WAREHOUSE STAFFS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26200, 10 July 1946, Page 9

WAREHOUSE STAFFS

Sir, —Your correspondent E M Sanders evidently is a very uninformed person when he thinks that the margin of fid in the pound profit can be dismissed airily Mr Sanders like many more, does not realise on what close margins wholesale and manufacturers operate. The average warehouse turns over its stock from three to four times in the year. Three times two and a-half per cent, equals seven and a-half per cent, which is probably more than the actual annual net profit made. The Price Investigation Tribunal is today trying to force manufacturers and distributors to sell on lower margins than heretofore, notwithstanding that during the past 12 months employers have had to face up to a 10s a week increase, an extra weeks holiday on full pay. Increased rates, freights, harbour charges and many other increasts. If the Tribunals policy Is persisted in the only way of meeting She position will be by retrenching staffs and curtailing activities. The powers-Ihat-be are .afraid to deal with the root cause of cost increases—i.e., sloth of the people in general, and in particular on thp waterfront and in the mines Your correspondent’s dissertation on the valour of the men in the Services during the war is besides the point, i I quietly remind him that from generation ie generation our manhood has faced up to military responsibilities equal to his, and that during the Great War New Zealand’s casualties were infinitely greater than in the immediately past one.—l am, e tc, Face Facts. July 8.