NO VALID REASON

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20890, 23 August 1939, Page 9

NO VALID REASON

BOYCOTT OF HOTELS

POSITION OF LICENSED TRADE PASSING ON BEER TAX (Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Tuesday Members of the trade in Auckland are at a loss to understand why a section of the trade union movement has, for no valid reason, sought to apply direct actionist tactics against the consumption of bee-r in cityhotels,” said Mr M. J. Walsh, secretary of the Auckland Provincial Council, speaking for the wholesale and retail sections of the licensed trade of the province, when Interviewed to-day with reference to the local reaction to the passing on to the public of the recently imposed increase in the duty on beer. “The right of the individual to determine exclusively whether he shall buy a commodity, and where, cannot be challenged. Boycott Unjustified “However, there can be no justification for organised attempts to dislocate trade by the application of a boycott, especially when the circumstance® call for a reasoned analysis of the actualities and an intelligent recognition of the deductions from them. “The charge has been made that the licensed trade is exploiting the beer-drinking public in the process of passing on to the consumer the increase in the excise duty of sixpence a gallon on beer. Indeed, in some quarters this belief is said to be the reason for the threatened boycott. This impression is erroneous. The trade emphatically denies that in the adjustment of prices it is making, or, for that matter, can make, additional profits. It can demonstrate conclusively that, in passing on the tax, far from securing an extra margin of profit, it actually is unable to maintain the same ratio of profit as was returned before the rise in price to the consumer. Those who claim that unfair advantage is being taken of the situation have forgotten that the industry is subject to the operations of the legislation governing variation in prices, both wholesale and retail, and that in altering prices to meet the taxation the trade would have to justify the adjustments if called upon to do so. Petrol Tax Quoted “The trade, in both wholesale and retail branches, had no alternative but to act similarly to the petrol companies and transfer the new impost to its customers. Once again, it merelyacted as a collecting agent for the Government, as it has so frequently done in the past. The trade, in neither of its branches, was in a position to carry or absorb the new excise duty. Substantially rising overheads during recent years had taken care of that. ; “It has been suggested that the imperial pint at sixpence be reverted to. : In view of current charges, this i would involve the retailing of the product at virtually cost price. It is not without interest to mention that the retail price of draught beer an imperial pint in New South Wales is 9d in public bars and iOd in private bars, and that the local bottled beer is sold in New South Wales at respectively iOd and Is, as against 9d a bottle in Auckland. Incidentally, the excise duty in New South Wales is the same as in New Zealand. “The Government obviously did not expect the trade to do other than redistribute the duty. Consumers of beer, representing a widespread section of the people, were expected to find an additional £300,000, which the Budget estimated the new impost would produce. The trade was selected as the medium for the collection of that amount. Circumstances beyond the control of the industry thus made the adjustment in price unavoidable.”