Purchase of Picots

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 35, 11 February 1937, Page 7

Purchase of Picots

Government Refuses Information UNTIL PARLIAMENT MEETS. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night. No further information concerning the purchase and operation by the Government of the produce-distributing business of Picot Bros., Ltd., is to bo made public before Parliament meets, according to au intimation by the Prime Minister to the executive of the Associated Chambers of Commerce today. The secretary of the association reported that the Prime Minister had been advised that it was felt to be a matter of considerable public concern for full information to be given prior to Parliament assembling, because the State would be taking the business over this month, and Parliament would not be meeting until August. The Prime Minister had been thanked for his advice that the business would operate “under exactly the same conditions” ns private competitive concerns, and had been asked whether this meant that the business would also pay income tax. The association was particularly concerned regarding the point of the profits arising from tho business, for the reason that if the concern were efficiently conducted at cost, that must eventually spell tho elimination of private competitive units. Consequently, the association had urged that the aim of the business should be to show a reasonable amount of profit on the capital invested in it, and had asked for au asauranco that this would be the objective. “The comments and opinions jot your organisation have been noted, and the whole matter has again been given careful consideration,” said the Prime Minister in his reply. “I regret I am unable to depart from the decision 1 conveyed to you in my letter of December 24, As intimated, the whole matter will be placed before Parliament at a suitable date, when all conditions of the purchase will bo discussed, together with the Government’s policy in relation to food distribution on the local market. ”