THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, July 10, 1946. NEW PRICE ORDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26200, 10 July 1946, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, July 10, 1946. NEW PRICE ORDER

The fact that the new price order has not been gazetted and tfius automatically made public but has been communicated to warehousemen in a circular from the Price Tribunal’s head office in Wellington is an interesting departure from the normal procedure. The change has the effects of stimulating attention to the nature of the instructions and of enhancing their significance. The new policy, which thus came j into effect on July 1 unheralded and j unknown to the general public, is { that practically all drapery lines j have undergone a reduction of 2\ j per cent, on the wholesale prices, i The opinion has been expressed that ! this reduction will have a negligible j effect on the purchaser, but whole- I salers have reacted strongly to it! and in some cases have held up j deliveries of goods until the position j has been explained. Deputations by j interested parties to the Prime j Minister have been fruitless except j that Mr Fraser has -agreed to refer I the matter to the Price Tribunal and j the Stabilisation Committee—a concession which is not likely to be

of any practical value. Wholesalers I have been of the bpinion that the j new order will so reduce profit j margins that staffs will have to suffer in order to meet expenses,

but there is a belief that this order is the forerunner of a series in a ! general policy of price reduction, j A Government statement elucidat- j ing the new order would be advisable, as public reaction to such a policy cannot be ascertained until its scope is known. One local warehouseman has stated that the action of withholding deliveries should not be construed as a threat, but even with this assurance it would appear that the trade has acted hastily. If price

reductions are to be made, it is an over-simplification of the problem immediately to suggest staff reductions. There has been agreement among various sections of the community, including those particularly concerned, that war-time conditions have produced a distortion in secondary industries and also that there has been a loss of efficiency in management and among the workers. A more constructive approach to the new conditions would therefore be an attempt to rectify these weaknesses. The price reduction will affect most

seriously the uneconomic industries which have been developed in recent years, and the extension of the new order into other fields than the clothing industry would have farreaching effects. It should also act as a control over the unsound inducements which have been offered in some cases to attract labour. The possibility of a connection between

the order and Mr Walsh’s report on stabilisation and his more recent address to the dairy industry, as was suggested in our news columns yes-

terday morning, is too striking to be ignored. Mr Walsh has remarked that it was certain that New Zealand could not continue with a system of price control which propped up the least efficient units. Such statements now take on a very practical significance. Further developments, and particularly the possibility of extensions, will be awaited with the greatest interest.