BOARD OF TRADE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2030, 18 September 1919, Page 2

BOARD OF TRADE.

CONTROLLING LIVING COSTS. WORK OF THE YEAR. The annual-report of the Board of Trade, presented to Parliament on Tuesday, stales that I lie work of the Board has consisted mainly in inquiries into matters affecting the cost of living. Special attention was paid during the year to the importation, sale, and distribution of petrol; to a scheme for the standardisation of footwear; to the placing of restrictions on the export . of timber, and to a comprehensive inquiry into the coal industry. Two hundred and sixty complaints were received regarding the high prices of (commodities. These complaints were investigated, and, wherever, in the opinion of the Boat'd, it was deemed desirable, adjustments of prices'have bueu made, in addition the Board received eighly-one deputations, and examined 242 witnesses. A wide range of commodities has been under the control of the Board, and no upward movement in prices has boon sauetibned without full investigation. In addition (o fifty-seven main grocery items comprising household essentials, the Board has kept control of manufacturers’ prices in grocery, lines, such as soap, condensed milk, sugar,

candles, jams, maiehes, bakingpowder, canned meets, etc. .the prices of bacon, wheal, Jlour, bread, bran, pollard, hide* and skins, and petrol have been fixed by Order-in-Council; and, by arrangement with the federated sawmillers throughout the Dominion, no increase in the price of timber has been made since the Ist November, 1318. Generally speaking, the application made by merelmnls and tradespeople for increases in prices have boon well founded, but in a few instances the Board has refused to grant such applications''where, after close investigation of the evidence and balancesheets submitted, the circumstances did not appear to warrant the granting of increases. The consumers’ interests have been closely watched by the Board in dealing with prices.