PURCHASE OF CHAIN STORES
ACTION BY GOVERNMENT RUMOURED (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, October 15. A rumour that the Minister of Industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) was negotiating for the purchase of a number of chain stores in the Dominion was mentioned by Mr S. G. Smith (Nat., New Plymouth) during the Budget debate in the House of Representatives today. “It is being freely rumoured throughout the country that the Minister intends to buy up several chain stores in all the main centres with the idea of being able to exert some control over internal prices in the Dominion,” said Mr Smith. “This is one of the reports one hears all over the country about the Government’s intention to enter into private enterprise. A committee investigated the operations of the chain stores last year and one of its recommendations was that the Government should consider some form of control over them. I feel that if this is given effect to it means the beginning of the end of the small trader. The Socialists believe that it is easier to take over from monopolists and this means in the long run that the Government will take over these big monopolies.”
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19371016.2.71
Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 23332, 16 October 1937, Page 8
Word Count
202PURCHASE OF CHAIN STORES Southland Times, Issue 23332, 16 October 1937, Page 8
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Southland Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in