UNDULY RESTRICTIVE

Chronicle (Levin), 25 September 1947, Page 5

UNDULY RESTRICTIVE

Press Assocfatio ni

Price Control Bill Biassed and Unneeesssary

(Pp.r

wellingtqn, sqpt, 25. "The provisipns .of thp Pontrpl pf Prices Bill have hcen CQ.refully PO.n- , sidered by my executivp and WP have come to the conclusiQp. that it is npt only unnecessary, hut alsp biassed, unduly restrictive and likely to make even worse the disease which it is tr-ying to cure,?f statpd the president of the Associated cHambprs pf" Commerce, Mr. Hfaskell Andersb'ji, today. * While it might be cqntended that a goo'd deaj of what was contaiped in the was justified by 'precedent, it was not to be fprgotten that there wqs, a big difference between the "spvpre measure^ bofne during the emergenpies . of the war 'on one hand .'and qn the other thp placiiig of these rpstrictip'ns pn a perpianent peacetirhp basis. ' ('The fac't that the G-oyernment finds it necessary not oniy tp hang the cpl'lar per-m'anently around the necks qf indu§try, commerce and the retail trade;' but npw tq put the spikes in the cpl'lar as well, is . a plain admission of the Government's faiiure to deal with the problem of suppli.es and prices instead qf reaiising that there must be soipething wrqng. with thq cpHar. The Gpvernme'rit is likely to find- thp spikes will wprspn rather than improve." Mr. Anderson said that the short-t age of many needed lines was largely because price control had not made it worthwhile tq produce many of those goods. There was no question whatever that in normal conditions the total abolitipn of price control was in thp best interests of the consumer public, because thereby firms were spurred tq production. An incentive was given to industry and the public got the benefit resulting from lower -prices induced by competitipn. Abolition ' was within reaeh when all efforts had been made by the Government to bring produe-r tipn up to the level of the demand for goods by providing every inducement to production, and by' encouraging efficieney instead of shackling it. The present Bill did nothing positivp in' that direction. Qn the' contrary it would depress the supply si£ua£ion still further by purely ' negative restrictioii and policing. The Asspciated Chambers of Commerce were prepared to see a continuance pf fairly depigned price control for the period of Britain's emergpnpy, cqntinued Mr. Anderson, but "they had not been cbnfronted with the Bill when they put their names to the aid to Britain conferenGe resolutions. It appeared that the tribunal was to be packed with ayi unlimited num-r. her of associated members . who would probably know nothing' about the conduct of ' business and act accordingly. The jpdicial determinations of the present tribunal were to be replaced by the directives of bureaucrats and laymen, who would no doubt be anpointed froni sectionai interests. The trader," under pain of the most severe penalties, was to be heid guilty on any informatipn laid by irresppnsibie snoopprs ljntri He cquld prove himspif inrippe'nt— a disgraceful rev'ersal pf British lay/. In the chamber's view the tribunal should be ke.pt on a temporary br emergency Iqp.sis, and the''scope of its authority bp redqced pro'gresr sively and as rapidly as possible with a view tp its uitimate elimination from the economic set-up of Ihe Dpminipn. Members of the tribunal should be independeni and well qualified to weigh judicially the evidence on the ecohomic issups placed befpre them. They should bC limited to two, plus a permanent chairiqan, and the proposal to appoint asspciate meirir bers, who could oniy be partisan one way or the other, should be struck out on the grounds " that the tribunal should be a'judicial body, , free from bias either way, and that all partisan poiiits should be submitted to the tribunal ih the form pf eyidence only.