GROCERS’ CONFERENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 274, 9 February 1928, Page 20

GROCERS’ CONFERENCE

MEETING AT NELSON TIME PAYMENT CRITICISED Press Association. NELSON, Tuesday. The annual conference of the New Zealand Master Grocers’ Federation was opened to-day by the Minister of Lands, Hon. A. D. McLeod. More than 50 delegates were present. The Mayor, Mr. W. J. Moffatt, accorded the delegate a welcome to Nelson, and was supported by Mr. H. Atmore, M.P., Hon. W. W. Snodgrass and the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. E. H. Thomson. The Minister said that as regards Government interference in business, it was hard to know where it was going to start and where it was going to end. If a trade were going along all i*ight and making a fair profit, then it should be left alone, but where unfair profit was taken for services rendered, then the public would demand that the Government step in. The Minister laid stress on the need for . encouraging New Zealand-made goods. Tie said that when vegetables and similar commodities were being imported into New Zealand, it was obvious that something was wrong. In his presidential address, Mr. A. Goodley referred to the growing prevaelnce of time payment. He said money which should have been used in paying for the necessaries of life had been frittered away in time payment on the purchases of luxuries. The silver lining to the cloud was the determination of those who were supplying the necessaries of life to restrict credit, if not to insist on cash payment on delivery.