PROFITEERING.

Taihape Daily Times, 12 September 1919, Page 3

PROFITEERING.

(Lyttelton Times.) Our contemporary, the Dominion, opens a comment »on Mr Massey’s recent discovery that something ought to be done to check pi-ofiteering by saying: “The Prime Minister has been conunendably prompt in giving heed to the complaints that are rife in re. g‘~“'d to Pl'ofitC°l‘illg and in seeking a il'olllodY-” This, We» think, shows that the Wellington journal has a highly‘ original mind. Everybody else in New Zealand is wondering why it ‘is that the ‘ complaints that have been so rife for; so many years havefound the Prime! Minister deaf and unresponsive. Fur-L thermore_, there was not the slightest necessity for Mr Massey to seek .a remedy. \Vith prescience which would have been admirable had it been accompanied by good memory, Ur ;\lassey"s administration placed -on the Statute Book, on August 10th, 1914, the Regulation of Tl'a(Te‘ and Commerce Act, which gave the fullest. powers to deal with proflteering, and all cognate evils. These'powers, so far as the checking of ‘profiteering went, w’ere allowed to rep main dormant through all the long and: ‘ weary years of the war. In December} last, the war being over, still more stringent and specific clauses were drafted——the clauses, in fact, which LVII‘ Massey has now. decreed shall become oper-ative——but for nearly nine months the existence otithis new and specific statute has been forgotten. And now, when after five years and nineteen days. the Prime Minister proceeds, on the eve of a general election, to enforce the laws for whose framing he himself wasresponsible, the Dominion applauds his promptitude! Przfrty fidelity can surely go no further. Indeed, after the strain of this strong pull on the long law the Wellington journal, in an (-fi'ort, perhaps t.o regain its equilil~l‘il;rn. proceeds to discuss the subject cf piofiteering quite sanely and son-s-21;I_-Ié. and asks why the clauses passed last year should be confined to circumstances arising out of the war. “It piofiteering is established,” says our contemporary, “it does not seem to matter much wliat, the Cil'ClllllSl'.al)C‘.oS are in which it has been practised, and there seem to be strong al'gu;ne:l.'s for de’eting the last. and qualifying poi-“en or? the sub-section.” It givs us a rare. and unexpected pleasure to find -om':<.l\'e:; in entire agreenient. on this . point at any rate, with our ‘,o'lt)xn,.-r----aty. The profiteers have liarfl :1. long ’ innlngr, and it is time they we».-.2 2;:x\vled 011*,‘ V