The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 1920. REPRESSING PROFITEERING.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 January 1920, Page 4

The Da ily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 1920. REPRESSING PROFITEERING.

"The temptation came to us and we fell." Such was the excuse made by a London firm when charged with conspiring to defraud the Inland Revenue of large sums of money for income tax and excess profits duty. The same temptation on the part of traders generally to disobey the law and indulge in profiteering lias produced a similar fall, and the authorities in Britain are dealing drastically with the culprits. There are in England 1600 local tribunals appointed to try cases of excessive charges by retailers, and in one ease a penny overcharge on bottled stout cost an innkeeper £ls 4s, while a grocer was fined ten guineas, and five guineas costs, for selling a tin of salmon at Is 3d instead of ninepenee. Besides being fined, numerous traders have been compelled to make refunds for overcharges, sometimes only one or two pence, and at others shillings and pounds. By attacking the profiteers and those who are defrauding the revenue of the State, considerable influence is being exercised on traders to act equitably. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food (Mr. McCurdy, M.P.) when recently explaining to the press what is being done in Britain to stop profiteering, said that deputations have been sent to him to ask the old Biblical question: "What shall we do to save ourselves?" He added: "We are attacking the problem of high prices from all \ in Hei-

tain is having a marked effect on the moderation of prices. • "Why, then, cannot a similar effect be produced ih New Zealand ? Firstly, because the only machinery provided by the Government to deal with the matter during the war—the Board of Trade—had no authority to enforce the law. Secondly, for the reason that the public in general have unwisely aided and abetted the profiteers by paying, without question, the high prices asked for goods, and by their increasing demand for articles patently charged for at excessive rates, have encouraged profiteering until it has become a rampant evil. The result was speedily apparent in the raising of the workers' wages, thus further aggravating the position and causing prices to soar higher still. Obviously, unless an effective remedy is provided, there must come a time when a crisis is reached. Already the process of making five per cent, of the community excessively wealthy at the expense of the remaining ninety-five per cent, is seriously affecting people of small and fixed, incomes, including the dependents of killed 4nd wounded soldiers and old age pensioners, whose small means have been depreciated by the profiteers. The legal definition of profiteering is "charging a higher rate of net profit than was charged for the same commodity prior to the war." Since August 10, 1914, statutory legislation has existed in New Zealand for preventing profiteering, and during the whole of the five years only one prosecution was instituted, and that failed. Is it to be wondered that the evil has flourished? It would have been marvellous, under the circumstances, had it been otherwise. Profiteering itself is a form of dishonesty, and it has led to dishonest acts, and all that is possible should be done to bring the culprits to book. It is useless to dwell upon the sins of omission of the National Government in allowing this profiteering to thrive unchecked. What is more to the point is that at the earliest possible moment effective steps are taken to cope with this exploitation of the public. On one occa-1 sion the Premier asked: "If it had been possible in England and other countries to keep down the J cost of living, would not their statesmen have done so?" If he was waiting for a lead he need no longer tarry. It is to be found in the 1600 local tribunals in the Mother Country appointed to try cases of excessive charges by retailers, the guiding principle of these tribunals being: Is the profit arrived at on any reasonable business principles, or is it merely dictated by greed and avarice? The operation of these bodies is simplicity itself, and can be made equally effective in New Zealand as in England. A central committee deals with the wholesalers and trusts, and it has so been constituted as to be at once an expert, a representative and an independent body. All the great manufacturing trades and Chambers of Commerce are represented on the employers' side, as well as on the side of the operatives, and, in addition, retailers, co-operators, consumers and distinguished economists are helping to make the Act effective. The work of the Committees of Trusts is performed by 'a number of small committees formed from its own numbers, with full power to obtain technical and expert assistance. The main essential, however, is the co-opera-tion of the public, for unless this is given no good will ensue. According to Mr. M'Curdy, one of the causes of profiteering is the fact that the public seem to have lost all sense of what is a reasonable price. This is scarcely to be wondered at, but, given the opportunity for regaining its equilibrium in this respect, the public may be relied upon to act up to its convictions. Manifestly some action must be taken either on the lines adopted kißritam, or an equally good substitute. The Government has a great opportunity for solving a very vexed problem, which has a marked effect on the welfare of the people, and it is to the Government the people must look for protection—even against themselves.