PURPOSE ACHIEVED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 211, 22 September 1937, Page 3

PURPOSE ACHIEVED

Press AssoeialioR.)

Minister's Claim for AntiProfiteering Act NO PROSECUTIONS YET

(Bs Tt)leKrpr>h—

WELLINGTON, This Day. Au oulline of the operation of ihe Preventiou pf Pi'otiteeriug Acfc was giveu by tho Miuister of Industries aud Comerce, the Hon. D. G. SuRivau, wheu speaking in the Address-in-Reply debate in tlie House of Representatives yesterday. The Leader of the Opposition. he said, had wanted to kuow what had becoine of tliat Act and what the Government was doing to protect the public under the tenns of tlie Act. Mr Hamilton had persisted with tho suggestion that it was the inteution of this Government to preveut an increaso in priccs. "There was no such declared intuntion,'' Mr Sullivan said. "I tricd to explain that the Brevention of Profiteering Act provided for the lixing of a basic price and made it au offence ior goods to exceed that price by au uureasonablc amount. I stated at the timo when that legillation was introduced that if it were possible to avoid prosecutious under the Act — if we could acliieve tlie objects of the Act without harassiug people — tlien we proposed to do that if it could possibly be done. If we encountered unreasouableness, then We would have uo hesitation in prosecutiug." Mr Sullivan said thav the departmeut liad mado mauy iuquiries, some huudyetls of them. A number of them liad resulted in proving that the increased price boiug eliarged was not excessive as delincd in the terms of the Act. lu otlier cases it had been found that an excessivo price had been charged, and the matter was gone into with the people concerned. in a rtiajority of tlioso cases there was no diffii iilty in mducing them to niake the uecessary reductions. There had been no prosecutious.

The departmeut liad made hundreds of iuquiries and liad been received with good will aud without hostility. If the price was too high reductions were secured, and in sonie cases the department had secured tlie return oi the money to the purchaser. There was one industry that was showing some signs oi hostility and deliance, but he did not want to reler to that in detail at the moment, r.s it was still under investigation He was just waiting to get their balance-sheet, and there would be no argument then. "I-want to say that the Act has been a very useful Act^ and has, to a very large extent, achieved its purpose," Mr Sullivan continued. "Our relations with the business community have been peri'ectlv saticfactory, while we have been carefully safeguarding the interests of tho consumcrs.''