PRICE CONTROL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 116, 1 March 1950, Page 4

PRICE CONTROL

ABANDONMENT NO GOOD DISCUSSION BY GROCERS’ FEDERATION (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 28. "The New Zealand Master Grocers’ Federation, while recognising the desire of the present Government to abandon controls, considers that the economy of the country must be paramount under existing conditions, and, therefore, fails to see that any good purpose will be served by abandoning price control at the present time. Nevertheless the conference considers that some measure of decontrol at the moment would be in the best interests of all concerned.”

This motion was carried unanimously at the twenty-sixth annual conference of the Federation to-day. The subject was raised by the chairman, Mr I. R. Wilson, who asked for a policy to be formed, on the matter. “I think, it is a thing which should be left well alone,” said Mr M. S. Mackie,'of Wellington. “I think we shall find that a number of things will be decontrolled.” “If you took a snap vote on this you would probably get a majority which would ask for price control to be wiped out completely, but I should think about it,” said Mr D. Cunningham (Auckland). The average worker had been controlled for a , long time as far as wages were concerned. They had fought long enough for an increase, and when they got it it was eaten up. “I think the Minister may think we are picking off. the lines we want and not thinking of the consumer,” Mr Cunningham said. “If we get all our prices decontrolled we may get something we are not too happy about. You must consider the worker and the' consumer when asking for controls to be removed. I think it may be just as well to leave control on prices at the present time.” “I think the matter should be further postponed until the Government has made a decision and announced its policy, said Mr A. Finch (Hawke’s Bay).- The election policy of the Government was decontrol of everything, but he now thought certain reservations would have to be made. He would like to see the matter left for six months. “It seems ridiculous that any retailers want the retention of price, controls,” said C< E. Rawlings (Canterbury). Two Schools of Thought

Mr Wilson: There are two schools of thought on that. There seemed to be two reasons which were contradictory why members wanted controls retained, said Mr E. H. Down (Canterbury). The first reason was that they were frightened that certain competitors would lower fixed prices. “Are' we not sick of controls?’ he said. “We should go all out to cut out all controls. Competition will keep prices down. We should go ahead and risk it.” “We have moaned and groaned for years about control,” said Mr W. H. Shearer (Hawke’s Bay). “The time has come when we have to fight our own battles. Competition will keep prices down.” »“How can you saj[ prices will not rise,” said the secretary, Mr R. M. Barker. “It is just, silly for this conference to turn round and say risk it. To say here that prices will not rise is so much bunk. Who knows what the manufacturers will do. You cannot say prices will not rise with any degree of authority. In the United States after price control was lifted prices rose more than 50 per cent.” In the United States it was a different story, as price control over everything had been wiped out, said Mr Down. Prices had now fallen back to their previous level. Business failures and bankruptcies had increased by 380 per cent., said Mr Barker. Prices Would Not Rise Referring, to price control in his address in the morning, Mr Wilson said there was a conflict of opinion on the subject. “Instead of our ‘supposed to be’ dislike for price control I think that some members of our federation are in favour of the retention of price control.- I feel that were price control .to be lifted there would be no increase in retail prices through retailers’ actions because of the intense competition that exists in our trade. I do feel that it would be a definite relief to our members if the risk of prosecution for breaches of price control were removed. I know that we are all likely to be victims of error no matter how careful we might be in our pricing, and the penalty of court prosecution is to me out of all proportion for such a minor civil offence. I am sure the trade would be happy to free itself from this penalty that we accepted as a war measure.”