MINERS’ STORE AT HUNTLY

Southland Times, Issue 25548, 16 December 1944, Page 3

MINERS’ STORE AT HUNTLY

Special Allocation Of Tobacco (P.A.) AUCKLAND, December 15. Further protests alleging discrimination by Government departments towards the new miners co-operative store at Huntly have been made by the Auckland Master Grocers’ Association and those retailers interested in the allocation of tobacco supplies. The secretary of the Grocers’ Association, Mr R. M. Barker, said that grocers were required to reregister their sugar customers not later than November 11, and transfers after that date could be made only if the customer changed his address, or if there was a change in the ownership of the business. “Last Monday we learned that the miners’ co-operative store had received a special dispensation from the Rationing Controller to accept transfers up to December 9,” said Mr Barker. “This is a concession without precedent throughout the' Dominion and those grocers who have carried the burdens of rationing for nearly three years resent such a gross breach of the instructions issued to all retailers. There was absolutely no justification for the action taken by the controller’s office and, therefore, it can only be attributed to the same political pressure which resulted in the violation of the Food Controller’s policy regarding quotas of bacon and ham. If the Government wants the co-operation of the trade in the successful rationing of foodstuffs it will have to give an assurance that no preferential treatment will be given to any particular trader or traders.” MINISTRY’S METHOD After a meeting of retailers interested in the allocation of tobacco a statement was issued to the effect that the Government’s action in making an allocation of tobacco and cigarettes to the miners’ store threatened to disrupt the whole distribution of supplies throughout the Dominion. The method of wholesale distribution approved by the Ministry of Supply had been to allocate supplies on a basis of retailers’ past sales, thus ensuring an equitable distribution. In the past no new stores had been granted quotas, excepting those opened by returned servicemen, because of the serious shortage. , . “The policy of reducing quotas of the existing traders in and around Huntly to make supplies available for the miners’ store is unheard of,” the statement continues. “In its application it means that a new store is, with the assistance of the Government, given an established business, while other retailers, whose supplies have been restricted, are denied the ability to compete.” ALLOCATIONS REDUCED It had been said that the adjustments were in accordance with the transfer of sugar registrations, but the meeting affirmed that these registrations had no relationship, nor could they, with tobacco users. It was also pointed out that even allowing for the restoration of 50 per cent, of the cuts made after the matter was first ventilated, the reductions levied bore no relationship whatever to the number of sugar registrations transferred to the miners’ store. One retailer who was a returned serviceman lost less than 4 per cent, of his sugar registrations, yet his tobacco allocation was reduced by 50 per cent. “If the Government on this occasion is to accede to the pressure of a certain section of the community,” the statement concludes, “the same sections of workers in other parts of the Dominion, similarly organized, will demand the same so-called rights. This statement is made solely for the purpose of showing the consuming public the impossibility of trying to ensure equality of distribution of tobacco products while the Government itself is prepared to upset the well-estab-lished principles of retail distribution.”