COMMERCIAL TRUSTS ACT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 82, 29 November 1912, Page 6

COMMERCIAL TRUSTS ACT.

(Per' Press Association.) Wellington, November 29. To-day is the fifth day of the hearing of the anti-trust case, Mr. Husking, 'KVC.'}' coirt'fintod'liis’‘address 'for the defence. He submitted a series of propositions dealing with the Commercial Trusts Act—(l) That it was permissible to combine to control the prices of goods, if the control were not of a nature which was contrary to the public’interest; (2) that it was permissible for a commercial trust to fix prices which were not unreasonably , high; (3)| that it was permissible for anyoiio to sell goods at prices which were fixed by a commercial trust if those prices were not Unreasonably , high; (4 )that it was permissible to sell goods at prices; not unreasonably high in conformity witjJi determinations of the commercial trust. The Act, he contended, had skilfully loft an area nvithin which commercial trusts might operate. The only control that could be against public interest was one that produced unreasonably high profits or high prices. The onus of proving that prices wdre unreasonably high was upon the Crown.