RETAIL PRICES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1941, Page 4

RETAIL PRICES

PREVENTION OF PROFITEERING TRIBUNAL’S POLICY. PRESENT BASIS DECLARED INEQUITABLE. “There'is sound reasoning in the report submitted by Mr J. L. Hay, president of the New Zealand Federation of Drapers and Allied Trades, to the Price Investigation Tribunal,” said Mr J. H. Cunningham, general manager of the W.F.C.A. Ltd., commenting on the report. “It is recognised that a system to .prevent profiteering is necessary, but equally so any system adopted should be fair to the trading concerns, and it is in the interests of the Government and ultimately of the individual that nothing unjust should be done to disrupt the general flow of trade. “It is quite evident that most of the goods purchased by trading concerns prior to the war have already been disposed of and replacements are made at increasingly higher rates,” said Mr Cunningham. The present formula is inequitable and makes no' allowance for increases in overhead costs. The tribunal might well follow the. formula which operates in England, namely, an addition to the pre-war selling price of the actual cost increase, plus the expense percentage of the business upon such additional cost. If this formula is good enough for England, it surely should be good enough for this country. I would not go so far as to with the suggestion that retail houses are heading for bankruptcy, but it is obvious that if the present percentage cost of running a business is not covered in the regulations, profits will be reduced, which may mean a shortening of staff, and this would not be in the interests of the individual or of the country.”