THE PROFITEER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2182, 28 September 1920, Page 2

THE PROFITEER.

THE Board of Trade recently proceeded against a large Auckland drapery (inn for selling a costume at twelve guineas, the net cost of which was £7 Is (id, representing a gi'oss profit of 78 per cent. The defence was that such goods, arc risky, and if held until the end of the season have to lie sold at a considerable reduction. The method was to average 88 1-8 per cent, prolit. Till! sale of costumes does not trouble the great majority of women who are more concerned with (lie problem of purchasing necessary bread and hut ter lines of clolhing for (lull - children. The price of vaseline, alarm clocks, or costumes doesn’t cut much ice to the mother of live* or six children, which latter have to he fed and ..clot lied. This is the class which needs prole**!ion from the hungry profiteer than does tiie comparatively well-to-do. People willi money to burn on (lie latest fashions ami oilier extravagancies might he looked upon as fair game, according lo the present day code of commercial greed, hut a careful watch should be kept on Ililcinup, oraHit and Urn's prices, as it affects these particular line.-.

OUR Wanganui evening contemporary, commenting on recent Board of Trade prosecutions, says: —Contrary to its expectation, its prosecution in respect of profiteering in alarm clocks did no! lower tin; price of milk, nor make the morning plate of porridge any cheaper. And it was disappointed to find dial: its vaseline prosecution did not prevent a rise in (ml ter. So now it is going to do something worth while. If is going to prosecute a Dunedin linn for charging 100 high a price (or a geography hook, and it js coulidently anticipated that the cost of die Alb. loaf will fail in direct proportion to die line to he inllicled (if it is indicted) on the bookseller. But the Board is not going to stop there. Bless you, no. It is really energetic this time. It is going to prosecute someone else who sold a kitchen table for more money than he should have asked, and we may, therefore, reasonably believe (that is, if the table seller is also lined) that, the edibles usually put upon the table will also he reduced in price at no distant date, in consequence. And a skein of wool is die subject of die next charge. No doubl this case also (that is, if a fine lie indicted) will have far-reaching, beneficent consequences in reducing the cost of clothing and bringing down house rents. Of course, such incidental articles as we have mentioned do not really count very much in the scheme of things. No one really worries a great deal about the price of meat, bread, Hour, sugar, cloth-

hi", real, and such like tilings. But ■geography books and kitchen tables! All! There we find the Board of Trade really dealing at last with the necessities of life. And what, may we ask, are the necessities of life? Some wise man has said that the three prime necessities are food, shelter, and clothing. The Board must have had this in mind. By crawling under a tabic you may obtain shelter from the weather, if you do not happen to have a house. And if you are short of clothing, what easier than to tear up a book (a geography book for preference), paste the leaves together, and lashion yourself a paper suit, such as is worn by some folk in Germany? And food? Well, gnaw the edges of the table, or out the binding of the book! And then, all your three wants provided, cease to worry abont meat and broad, and cdothing, and house vent, etc., and bless the great Board of Trade which, by ensuring the cheap provision of such many-purposed articles as kitchen tables and'geography books, is so substantially helping you to defeat the operation of the “vicious circle.” And then—well —three cheers for the Board of Trade!