LAW AGAINST TRUSTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 931, 26 March 1930, Page 1

LAW AGAINST TRUSTS

STRONG OPINIONS VOICED BY CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE ALTERATION WANTED Special to THE SUN WELLINGTON, Today. The 'strong opinions which have been voiced by the Associated Chambers of Commerce against the Board of Trade Act seem unlikely to lead the Government to decide to alter the measure in any radical way. The Board of Trade Act. passed in wartime, had as its purpose the control of profits as well as the government of industry, but its provision for the regulation of trusts and combines are really a necessary executive extension of the Commercial Trusts Act of 1910. One of the arguments against the Board of Trade Act has been that if provisions of this nature were not required in 1910 when the Commercial Trusts Act was deemed to be necessary, they are x.ot needed now. This, however, is not accepted as a statement of the position. There is world-wide legislaL on against trusts and combines and regulation of them in the public welfare is deemed necessary. In addition, the effect of an Act is not to be gauged by the number of occasions on which its provisions are invoked. It is considered that the exI istence of such legislation is in itself 1 of very considerable influence upon the j would-be creators of trusts and that it imposes valuable restraint. | While tiie commercial community ; seems disposed to recognise the force j of these arguments, it objects to the , fact that the disappearance of the ’ board has been followed by the gath- • ering of the very wide powers of the I Board of Trade Act into the hands of ! the Minister of Industries and ComI merce, and to this objection there ap- ( pears to be a great deal of force. | Therefore, it is not unlikely that an j alteration in this side of the Act will j be made at a fairly early date, though 1 whether the original Board of Trade I will be reconstituted is a matter o 1