Wider Powers for Price Tribunal

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 302, 22 December 1939, Page 7

Wider Powers for Price Tribunal

MORE EFFECTIVE CONTROL Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Dec. 21. Additional powers are given to the Price Investigation Tribunal in regulations issued to-night under the Emergency Regulations Act passed by Parliament in September. An explanation of the regulations was given by Hon. D. G. Sullivan who said the purpose was to clothe the tribunal with extra powers which experience had shown were desirable and which would make for the still more effective administration of the law relating to the control of prices and profiteering. “Up to the present,” said Mr. Sullivan, “the Tribunal lias functioned under the Board of Trade Act and had exercised the powers relegated to it by the Minister. To facilitate the work of the Tribunal in dealing with applications for price increases the Government has now given directly to the Tribunal powers which formerly were exercised only by delegation. To enable such powers to be properly exercised the Tribunal has been constituted under the regulations themselves and its powers and functions are set out in the regulations.

“The Tribunal has up to the present been constituted only as an advisory board under the Board or Trade Act, 1919, and tho Board of Trade Amendment Act of 1923. Tho present members of the Price Investigation Tribunal (Mr. Justice Hunter and Mr. H. L. Wise) continue in office under the new regulations.

“Among the additional powers confored on the Tribunal is the power to issue price orders fixing the wholesale or retail price of any goods therein specified or fixing margins within which any such goods may be bought or sold. Any sale made subsequent to the issue of a price order which is not in conformity with such order is an offence against tho regulations.” The Minister said he hoped that in addition to giving more effective con-

trol over prices in the interests of the public the regulations would also prove an advantage to traders in enabling applications to be dealt with even more expeditiously than has been the case in the past.