COMMERCIAL TRUSTS ACT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10631, 29 November 1912, Page 3

COMMERCIAL TRUSTS ACT.

' HEARING CONTINUED. ; FIFTH DAY. ADDRESSES FOR DEFENCE. [Peu Press Association.] WELLINGTON November 29. To-day is the fifth day of tho hearing of the anti-trust cases. Mr Hosking continued his address for the defence. Ho submitted a series of propositions dealing with the Commercial Trusts Act :(1) Hint it u'fts permissible to combine to control the prices of goods, if the control were not of a nature contrary to tho public interests; (2) that it was permissible for a commercial trust to fix prices which wero not unreasonably nigh; (3) that it was permissible for anyone to sell goods at prices which were fixed by a commercial trust, it* those prices wero not unreasonably high: (4) that it was permissible to sell goods at prices not unreasonably high, in conformity with determinations of a commercial trust. Tho Act, he contended, had skilfully left an area within which commercial trusts might onerate, and the only control that could be against the public interest was one that produced unreasonably high profits, or high prices. The onus of proving that prices were unreasonably high lay upon the Crown.