UNFAIR POSITION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 100, 4 September 1942, Page 5

UNFAIR POSITION

FATE OF SMALL 'TRADER

MEN CALLED UP FOR SERVICE

Writing in "John A. Lee's Weekly"' the Hon. W. E'. Barnard, Speaker of the House of Representatives, sets out in interesting form

the position oi' the small trader

A s more and more men continue to be called up for service in the army, one begins to notice an increasing number of empty small shops which, formerly contained, useful little" businesses. The army, calls, and' the man, the SO»le pro-* prietor and worker, goes, while the wife and children have to get along as best they can on the army al r lowance plus the usual allocation from the husband's pay. The larger firms continue to lose the male 1 members of their staffs, but tihey fill up with girls and older men, and, so carry on. The custom of the little business presumably flows across to the big firm, a sheer gift from the god- of,, war. What arc the prospects of the small trader if and when he returns to civil life? Pretty poor, it would seem. Should some provision be made l to compensate hijtn for the complete loss of trade which provided him and his family with a modest living? * Compensation Paid in Britain In England the problem has developed in a large way, but a policy of compensation is in course of. de«vel op men t. Thousands of small shops have had 'to close down, partly through the call up to the forrces, partly through the inability oi the shopmen to obtain fresh supplies of goods. In Glasgow, some 25 per cent of the small non-food shops have been closed down. The British Retail Trade Committee has recently recommended a scheme under which large numbers of. small businesses, not dealing in food, will close down for the duration of the war. It is said that there are 30,000 of such small shops, and that they have been accustomed to transact one-half of the retail trade to the country in lines other than food. The trade will, of course, go to the big firms, but a plan has been recommended for compensating the? shopkeepers who have had to close their doors. The funds are to be obtained from a on the firms which continue,,in business. The problem is a difficult one, becauseit raises the question as to how the burden of war-time losses is to be borne and how the opportunities for post-war trading are to> be shared.

No notice appears to have been taken by the authorities in NewZealand of the similar problem, which lias arisen here. The small' shopman is nobody's political child, though his financial position maybe worse 1 than that of the skilled woj'ker on wages whose economic position is carefully watched and safeguarded. But the small shopman is a citizen and should not be called upon to a greater degree than a wage or salary earner, to sacrifice liis all—his business—to the needs of the country without some Recompense. Large-scale and prosperous firms like Woolworthi's and Mackenzie's will benefit through the extinction ot' the ■ small business. Is the profit from the additional trade to rebound as a free gift for the benefit of the shareholders of such firms ? Or should they be levied, as in England, to provide a compensation fund for the small shopkeepers? Sometimes the little business is all anachronism in these days of largescal« chain stores, but. no>t always. In any case there is a human problem to< be solved which it is the Government's duty to tackle. It ought not to be left over to the Rehabilitation Committee.