IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4724, 14 July 1924, Page 2

IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS.

■ • PROFITEERS WERE PUNISHED. TRADING HONESTY OF TO-DAY. (By A Barrister, in the "Daily Mail.”) In the good old days when Governments considered the welfare of “the lower and middling classes pf men ’ it was a crime against the community to increase artificially the price of commodities. In 1845, when Liberalism and Free Trade gained the ascendancy, the last remnant of the protection which the law afforded the masses of the people, was destroyed. Since then any man or combination of men have become legally entitled to “corner’’ essential food supplies in Great Britain and enrich themselves at the expense p£ the multitude. As recently as 1800 a profiteer named Waddington was fined £5OO and sentenced to a month’s imprisonment and to be imprisoned until the fine was paid for making a corner in hops. He was a Kentish hopgrower, and made it his business to go to Worcester and induce growers in that count} to withhold their stocks of hops from the market until the price rose from £ll a cwt, which it .then was, to £2O a cwt. To accomplish his project he entered into a series of “forward” contracts and set afloat false rumours as ; .o the shortage of hops. Great efforts were made by the lawyers of the day to save Waddington. One argument addressed to the judges was .that it would interfere with freedom of trade to convict the offender. The answer of one of the, court to this was : "How can it be requisite to support the freedom of trade that one man shall be permitted for his own private emolument to ennance the price of the necessaries of life, and thereby possible prevent a large portion of His Majesty's subjects from purchasing those necessaries at all ? Freedom of trade is one thing; the abuse of that freedom is another.” But the courts have no longer piwer to protect the public.