Price Control Said In Many Cases To Force Prices Up

Wanganui Chronicle, 28 October 1948, Page 4

Price Control Said In Many Cases To Force Prices Up

WELLINGTON, Oct. 26, (P.A.I.—He had a duty to inform the public that rather than keeping nrices down, the Didicy of the Price Tribunal was in many cases having the reverse effect, and was actually forcing them up. This was stated by Mr. D- O. Whyte, president ol the Wellington Manufacturers’ Association, discussing controls in his report to the annual meeting of the association. As a wartime necessity, price control had to be borne, he added, but the Government’s decision last year to make it a permanent part of the statutes of the country was a horse of another colour. The powers conferred on the tribunal by the Act were outrageous, and in at least one respect might yet have to be tested before the Courts. Manufacturers made a strenuous protest in the evidence to select a committee before the Control of Prices Bill was passed, and it was regrettable that their very carefully prepared submissions were ignored completely, Mr. Whyte proceeded.

Stating that the Price Tribunal’s policy was forcing prices up in some cases, Mr. Whyte said that no regard was had to efficiency, or in fact to the supply position of a particular commodity. What New Zealand ought to be doing was to remove the control of prices immediately the supply of a commodity caught up with demand, and in that way get back to the only tundamental method of ensuring that the consumer got a fair value, namely, by competition.