WIDER POWERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20127, 22 December 1939, Page 9

WIDER POWERS

ISSUE OF PRICE ORDERS FUNCTIONS OF TRIBUNAL EFFECTIVE CONTROL SURVEY BY MINISTER (Per Press Associatiot » WELLINGTON, this day. Additional powers arc given to the Price Investigation Tribunal in regulations issued last night under the Emergency Regulations Act passed by Parliament in September. An explanation of the regulations was given by the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, who said that the purpose was to clothe the tribunal with extra powers, which experience had shown, were desirable and which would make for still more effective administration of the law relating to the control of prices and profiteering. “Up to the present,” said Mr. Sullivan, “the tribunal has functioned under the Board of Trade Act and has exercised powers delegated to it by the Minister. “To facilitate the work of the tribunal in dealing with applications for price increases, the Government has now given directly to the tribunal powers which formerly were exercised only by delegation. To enable such powers to be properly exercised the tribunal has been constituted under regulations themselves and its powers and functions are set out in the regulations. Continuing In Office

“The tribunal has up to the present been constituted only as an advisory board under the Board of Trade Act, 1919, and Board of Trade Amendment Act of 1923. The present members of the Price Investigation Tribunal, Mr. Justice Hunter and Mr. H. L. Wise, continue in office under the new regulations.

“Among the additional powers conferred on the tribunal is the power to issue price orders fixing the wholesale or retail price of any goods therein specified, or fixing margins within which any such goods may be bought or sold.

“Any sale made subsequent to the issue of a price order which is not in conformity with such an order is an offence against the regulations.”

Tlie Minister said he hoped that, in addition to giving more effective control over prices in the interests of the public, the regulations would also prove an advantage to traders in enabling applications to be dealt with even more expeditiously than had been the case in the past.