PRICE TRIBUNAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 118, 22 May 1939, Page 8

PRICE TRIBUNAL

IT IS TO FUNCTION THIS WEEK CHECK TO PROFITEERING [ Per Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, May 21. A price investigation tribunal, the duty of which will be to control prices to prevent profiteering, will begin work in Wellington this week. The Minister of Industries and Commerce, Hon. D. G. Sullivan, making this nnouncement from Wellington to the Press at Christchurch, said that regulations requiring notification of price increases to the tribunal were now being drafted with Mr. Justice Hunter. There will be a second member to the tribunal, Mr. H. L, Wise, M. Com., A.R.A.N.Z., advisory officer of the Department of Industries and Commerce. Mr. Sullivan said that the tribunal, after being notified of the intention to increase any price would examine the reasons put forward and if the' increase was not justified the. matter would be taken up by the tribunal with the party concerned-. This procedure, Mr. Sullivan said, would make for more effective price control. Under the Board of Trade Act the tribunal will be given powers of judicial inquiry and will, if necessary, be able to call persons before it to give evidence in support of any increase in prices. The Government was adopting this procedure, Mr. Sullivan said, by reason of the attitude of a few towards the present situation. The Government had been reluctantly compelled to adopt the procedure he had outlined.