FINE IMPOSED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21957, 8 May 1941, Page 6

FINE IMPOSED

PRICES INCREASED WITHOUT AUTHORITY (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, May 7. A fine of £2 and costs was imposed by Mr G. G. Chisholm, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court this morning on Johnson and Couzins, Ltd. (Mr E. A. Lee), for selling a wool pack cover at £6/10/-, a higher price than the lowest charged in the previous year. Mr A. W. Brown, appearing for the Crown, said that the prosecution was brought under the Price Stabilisation Emergency Regulations. The price charged for a wool pack cover last year was £3/19/6, and without permission of the Price Tribunal, it had been raised to £6/10/-, said Mr Brown. The increase in the price of materials and the alteration of the defendant company’s costing methods, would account for a part of the increase in price, which at first sight appeared large, said Mr Brown. Few of the covers, which were required only in one season of the year, had been sold. Mr Lee, for the company, said that there had been some uncertainty over their obligations in the matter, and the increased price of material had raised the cost of production. Tire Magistrate then imposed the fine.