PROTECTING SOLDIERS’ BUSINESSES

Southland Times, Issue 17876, 4 September 1918, Page 4

PROTECTING SOLDIERS’ BUSINESSES

POWERS VESTED IN NATIONAL EFFICIENCY BOARD. According to a Gazette Extraordinary, power is given to the National Efficiency Board to make provision (or the prohibition or restriction of businesses which compete with those of soldiers, and the unrestricted establishment or continuance of which may injure or destroy the businesses of soldiers. The regulations provide, inter alia, that — “When the National Efficiency Board is satisfied that any person is carrying on or is about to carry on any business which will compete with the protected business of a soldier, and which will be rendered more profitable by the destruction or diminution of that protected business through the absence of that soldier on military' service, the National Efficiency Board may give to the person by-whom such first-mentioned business is or is about to be carried on a notice that such business is not to be carried on csccept under a license to be granted by the National Efficiency Board under these regulations. When a business is carried on by a soldier in partnership with any other person, the business shall, for the purposes of clause 3 of these regulations, be deemed, in respect and to the extent of the share of the soldier therein, to be a separate business carried on by him, and may become a protected business accordingly; and in such case the business may, in respect and to the extent of the interests of the other partner or partners therein, become a restricted busincaa under these regulations. When a business is carried on by a private company within the meaning of tha Companies Act, 1908, and one of the shareholders is a soldier, the business shall, for the purposes of clause 3 of these regulations, be deemed, in respect and to the extent of the share of the soldier in that company, to be a separate business carried on by him, and may become a protected business accordingly; and in such case the business of the company may, in respect and to the extent of the interests of the other shareholders therein, become a restricted business under these regulations. All moneys so received by the Board of Trustees shall be deemed to represent profits derived by that Board from the management of the protected business, and shall be disposed of by the Board of Trustees for and on behalf of the soldier accordingly. “Board of Trustees” means a Soldiers’ Property Board of Trustees constituted under the Soldiers’ Property Regulations, 1917, made under the War Regulations Act, 1914, on the 2nd day of April, 1917. Without the permission of the National Efficiency Board it shall not be lawful for any person to establish or carry on any new business as a retail shopkeeper, merchant, importer, exporter, commission agent, indent agent, accountant, auditor, land agent, manufacturer, solicitor, medical practitioner or dentist. Every person who establishes or carries on or is knowingly concerned in the establishment or carrying on of a new business without the permission of the Board, or otherwise than in accordance with any restrictions so imposed by the Board, shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be liable under the War Regulations Act, 1914, accordingly.

The fact that a business has been established with the permission of the Board under this regulation shall in no manner take away or affect with respect to that business the powers hereinbefore conferred on the Board with respect to protected and restricted businesses.”