"OBSOLETE AND RIDICULOUS."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 878, 26 July 1910, Page 10

"OBSOLETE AND RIDICULOUS."

THE AUCTIONEERS 'ACT.

For a considerable time the auctioneers of. New Zealand have been .'.dissatisfied with tho existing Auctioneers Act, and several conference's of firms' representatives have .been held; concerning proposals to- endeavour to ; have'-'tho statute amended;. :-. -,' At a meeting of auctioneers held in Messrs. ' Dalgety's offices : yesterday afternoon, it decided to. hold a Dominion 'Auctioneers' Conference-in'-the' Chamber of. .Commerce; buildings. Wellington, on .August 4.' The'conference ■is to he representative of all-the auctioneering firm's in the principal centres of the Dominion.

The chief business will bo the drafting of suggested amendments to tho Act. The suggestions will afterwards be submitted-to the Minister (the Hon. D.Buddo), and.it is hoped by the auctioneers that those representations will be the meaiis of. having an amending Bill passed, during; the present' session of Parliament.

The auctioneers complain- ! that , the .present-Act is seventeen years old; arid is obsolete.. The Act only' provides for •.■auctioneers'licenses being issued in tho .name of the individual auctioneer. That vias all right in the days when' auctioneers were proprietors of tho businesses rin which they sold,.but is out of date an the present day when big companies and firms are generally tho proprietors, . and tho auctioneers' are employees. The firms have to take out a license 4n< the name of an individual, and, though that person leaves, the business, the firm cannot have the license transferred to anyone' else unless the auctioneer in whoso .name the license was obtained is sick or has left the district. Therefore a man. might leave the day after the license was procured in his ■name, with tho £40 document in his possession, and the firm which bore tho expense has no recourse. To remove that absurdity, • the auctioneers recommend that the. Act should provide for (licenses to be issued in.the name of the firm to a nominee of tho firm. They recommend, also, that upon.a registration fee of ten shillings 'the license may be ..transferred to.any othor nominee.. , " What' they' term another ridiculous ■position is that according to the pre•sent Act the. auctioneers are personally 'responsible for the prompt rendering' of /account sales and money to the vendor. <pey want Hie liability fixed on" the i-finns. ■ . '

~They wish it added to the Act that ' "no local authority shall grant a license !to any person who has previously made application to-another local authority." .. It .will also be recommended that pro- , vision will be. made for an appeal if an application for a license is refused.