RETAIL PRICE OF SUGAR

Southland Times, Issue 23954, 21 October 1939, Page 4

RETAIL PRICE OF SUGAR

NO INCREASE TO BE MADE BY TRIBUNAL

GROCERS PERTURBED ABOUT POSITION

That the retail sugar, price of 4d per lb was fixed by the Sugar Price Regulations and could not be varied except by Order-in-Council was the advice contained in a telegram received yesterday from the Price Investigation Tribunal by the Invercargill Master Grocers’ Association. This reply was made in response to a telegram sent by the association on Thursday asking that grocers be allowed to charge a farthing per lb more because of the hardship inflicted by the increase in the wholesale charge. The telegram from the tribunal added that the associations representations would be brought under the notice of the Sugar Controller on his return to Wellington. Wholesale merchants have been notified by a circular from the Colonial Sugar Company that the cost of sugar to them has been advanced by £3/16/6 a ton. The price to be charged by grocers is to remain unchanged at 4d per lb, however, and the retailers are perturbed about the position.. “It is not fair that the grocers should have to bear the whole of the increase, ’ stated the president of the Invercargill Master Grocers’ Association yesterday. “We are disappointed that the tribunal has not seen fit to increase the retail price by even one farthing, but it is our intention to make more representations.”