PRICE INQUIRY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 126, 21 February 1940, Page 4

PRICE INQUIRY

WHAKATANE PAPER MILLS % ACCOUNTANTS EXAMINED The hearing by the Price Investigation Tribunal of the application by Whakatane Paper Mills, Limited, to increase the prices of the cardboard it manufactures was continued on Monday. * Under cross-examination William Drummond Barclay, registered accountant, of Auckland, who gave evidence on Friday afternoon on the company's costing system, said he did not cluck up on the relevancy or necessity of all items of expenditure in respect of plant or buildings. That was outside the ambit of his inquiries. Before asking anyone to accept the mill expenditure figure of £586,000 as conclusive he would expect him to check up on the amounts from the beginning. Frequent Price Changes. His Honor questioned witness about changes in the company's prices in the last six you tell me," His "why it was necessary to vary these prices four, five or six times in as many months?" > "Witness said he thought the simple'fact was that prices in the . earlier stages were not based on > costs at all, but on the selling prices of imported lines. The company realised that if it did not sell at the imported price it would get no V business and it would be unable to get the mill going.

His Honor: Do you say that, although the "life" which the company has now got arises from the fact that there is a Avar and import control is now in force, nevertheless we should fix prices on that very large sum which they say was invested in the mill? Witness said he thought so. If the matter was looked at from the other point of view—high prices due to the war—the company would be entitled to the price at which the board could be imported. It was not asking for that. It Avas asking for prices based on costs. The public could not have it both ways. Application of Theory. Clifton Frederick Langton, cost accountant for the company, said there was a diversity of opinion when the accounts of the company were reclassified. He had handed in his resignation, but it had not been accepted. In reply to His Honor, witness said that in costing theory did not matter in the leastAfter His Honor and Dr Foden had examined witness at some length, the case for the company was closed.