Lack of Discrimination Alleged

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26849, 13 August 1948, Page 4

Lack of Discrimination Alleged

ISSUE TO RETURNED MEN

The indiscriminate granting of import licences by the Government to returned servicemen during - the past two years has resulted in the farcical position arising of these men in many cases hawking round the main cities licences to the value of many thousands of pounds, and in others, importing goods they could not sell, while legitimate traders and merchants have been unable to obtain permits to import. This criticism of the method of administration of the Import Licensing Regulations was made to the L. Bezett, of A. L. Bezett, Ltd.,

Daily Times yesterday by Mr A. wholesale merchants and import*

The position in Auckland was chaotic, Mr Bezett said, and a minor slump existed in the north because the market for all crockery and many hardware lines was flooded. Now, in a desperate endeavour to remedy the position, the Government was cutting out licences to returned men except in certain circumstances.

Amplifying his j statements, Mr Bezett stated that he knew of many large and reputable Arms of many years’ standing which had been granted licences for a very trivial amount, while returned soldiers, with experience neither in the trade nor offices, had been granted licences for amounts running intq four figures. He quoted one well-known Auckland firm which received an import licence for £385 for aluminium ware, while a returned man without an office and no experience got one for £IO,OOO. The result was that the ex-army man had to sell his licence or the goods to a number of merchants. The same sets of circumstances could be applied to a number of private individuals, returned men, and business houses throughout the country. Mr Bezett also cited the case, of one man who expended all his import licence, valued at £2OOO, on electric irons, and finished up hawking them round New Zealand at 25s each, when the authorised price was 355. Mr Bezett said he had been actively engaged in business for over 20 years, and while, he and many other legitimate traders were denied or given greatly-reduced import permits, men who had not been in business for more than 12 months were able to secure, from Wellington, all the licences they required. He had been forced to buy goods from the licences held by these men. One, indeed, he said, was only an indentor. and as such was entitled to licences for £IOO only for samples. In actual fact he had received a licence for £IO,OOO for crockery and other goods. Commenting' on the Government’s prodigal issue of licences to returned men, and what he now considered its frantic haste to repair some of the damage caused, Mr Bezett said the department concerned was going to extremes. His son was a partner in his business, and in the past had received a licence for £IOOO worth of goods a year. The last one was reduced to £250 in value, and an officer of the Rehabilitation Department stated that unless his son held 50 per cent, of the shares in the business he would be granted no further licences. As a result of this statement Mr Bezett wrote to the Minister of Customs, Mr Nordmeyer, stating that his son had come into the business in the last two years. He asked the Minister if either he or his department had given instructions that no further licences would be issued to his son unless he held a 50 per cent, interest in the business.

“As you are no doubt aware,” Mr Bezett wrote, “ licences have been granted quite freely to returned soldiers who have had no established business, and have only hawked their licences. I quite agree that many of these should be cut out, but where a firm has taken a son into business as in my case, I think he has a legitimate complaint. “ I am financing him for practically no cost, to give him a start in life. He went to the war, and now that he is back he is obstructed in gaining a legitimate livelihood," the letter concluded.

The relevant portion of a letter received in reply stated: “I understand that before the Rehabilitation Department will favourably recommend any applications it requires that the exserviceman concerned shall hold at least 50 per cent, of the shares in the business.

“A similar position applies in regard to ex-servicemen who enter established businesses, including family businesses. In cases where the firms do not qualify for the sponsorship of the Rehabilitation Department applications for import licences are considered individually on their merits by my department,” the letter stated. “In dealing with such applications, - due regard is had to the fact that the licences applied for are required largely for the rehabilitation of the ex-servicemen concerned.”

The whole import licensing business was in a hopeless muddle, concluded Mr Bezett, and it was aggravated by the indiscriminate issuing of licences to the men when they first came home.