PRICE-FIXING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 12, 28 July 1919, Page 6

PRICE-FIXING

POSITION OF BOARD OF TEADE. A. cablegram from Australia published on Saturday referred to the reviving of tho Necessary Commodities Commission in the State of New South Wales. This body had been the price-fixing authority in New South Wales. Speaking of this message on Saturday, the Hon. W. D. S. McDonald, - Acting-President of the Board of Trade, said that apparently il had been necessary to take some action for the controlling of prices owing to tlio abolition of price-fixing by the Commonwealth Government. In Now Zealand the position was quite different, for the special legislation by which the Government. was empowered to fix prices in New Zealand had been re-enacted last session, and had been extended for .1 period of Iwo years. It would not expire with the other war legislation. "There is an impression abroad," he continued, "that tho Board of Trade is the mace-fixing (authority in New Zealand. ®l'bi ß is incorrect. The Board of Tiwlyfnevcr hart conferred on it pow'er to fixA'irt'ict's, their functions ending in malnii'g' recommendations, but there is under Consideration important amending legislation conferring great powers on the board. Despite the fact that the board did not have price-fixing powers, it has been able in various ways lo control prices, viz., by arrangement with manufacturers, merchants, and refhilers. and, in cases where arrangements could not otherwise! be come to, the Government has fixed prices by Order-in-Coun-cil. The whole of the transactions of the board will be laid before Parliament shortly, and (he public will see that a very useful amount of work has been accomplished, and that New Zealand's position compares favourably with any other country in the world. Professor'lrving Fisher, of Yale University, in a recent address before, the American Economic Association, pointed out the very favourable position that New Zealand held from the cost of living standpoint, classifying the main countries of the world in the following order, the countries suffering least by the tide of rising prices being mentioned first:—lndia, Australia, New Zealand, ' United States. Canada, .Tapan, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark. Italy, Holland. Norway, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, and Piiissia.

".Since Professor Fisher spoke, tlio ■position as "between Australia and New Zealand has been reversed. This result ha-i been probably brought about by the greater freedom in New Zealand from industrial troubles. Statistics in this connection are included in the Board of Trade's annual report."