H— 44.

Gas Regulations. lie Board of Trade (Gas) Regulations, which are administered by the Department, provide safeguards in regard to heating-value, purity, pressure, price, and measurement. Nineteen gas undertakings in the Dominion now come within the scope of the regulations, an additional company—the New Plymouth Gas Co., Ltd.—having been brought under them as from the 10th July, 1930. The work of the Gas Examiners and Inspectors of Meters has been carried out efficiently during the period under review. The official relations with the gas companies and municipal undertakings continue to be most satisfactory. Commercial Trusts Act. complaints were made to the Department during the past year that the provisions of the Commercial Trusts Act, 1910 (as amended by section 12 of the Cost of Living Act, 1915), were being infringed, and in each case these were followed by full investigation by the Department into the nature and circumstances of the alleged breaches. These complaints related principally to alleged refusals to supply, and to the fixation of prices of commodities covered by the schedule to the Act. In no instance, however, were the facts such as to justify legal action being taken. In several cases the Department's intervention has resulted in an improvement in business relations between parties concerned. Chattels Transfer Act, 1924, _ Section 57 of this Act provides for the protection of bailors of such chattels as are referred to in the Seventh Schedule without the necessity of registration, and it is provided by the Act that Orders in Council may be issued to extend the Seventh Schedule by adding further classes of chattels recognized as being the subject of " customary hire-purchase agreements." The Department has the administration of this section of the Act, and whenever applications are received for the extension of the schedule thorough investigation and inquiry is made by the District Officers in each of the tour chief centres of the Dominion as to the customary trade practices and as to the desirability or otherwise of adding such, articles to the schedule. During the past year applications were made in respect of the following classes of chattels : Oil heating equipment for use in connection with bakers' ovens ; refrigerating machinery ; radio sets ; bicycles ; bakery machines and ovens ; chocolate and confectionery machines ; biscuit and cake machines and ovens ; chemical manufacturing machines ; laundry washing, drying, and ironing machines ; soap and perfume manufacturing machines. Careful inquiries were made' in regard to each, of these applications, but in no instance was the evidence obtained considered sufficient to warrant the addition of the particular chattels to the schedule. With the increase in the volume and variety of commodities sold under the hire-purchase system the number of applications to the Department for the inclusion of such articles in the Seventh Schedule to the Act also increases. This necessitates careful inquiry on the part of the Department to ascertain whether the facts genuinely justify an addition to the schedule. In the past it has been found that one or two applications have been made merely as a preliminary to a special sales campaign conducted in connection with the particular articles. While the hire-purchase system has shown rapid extension during the last few years, it must be pointed out that there is a strong body of opinion definitely opposed to the adoption of the principle especially in the matter of the abuses to which the system is open, more particularly in its application to I non-essential " classes of goods. Trading-coupons. The trading-coupon system as a means of increasing sales of particular commodities has received a considerable amount of publicity during the course of the past year. Briefly stated, the system comprises the issue of coupons by certain persons or firms to retailers in the Dominion who issue them in turn to their customers when making purchases, the points allotted, or. in other words the value of the coupon given, varying according to the amount of the purchase. Ultimately the coupons are redeemable m exchange for gifts varying in value according to the aggregate value of the coupons collected. The details of the methods employed in particular cases may differ, but the underlying principles are, generally speaking, the same. The system has grown extensively in the Dominion during the past year, and a strong bod y of opinion definitely opposed to the system has rapidly developed. As a result of innumerable representations upon the matter the Government decided to take action to suppress the system. Legislation was introduced during the last session of Parliament with the object of amending the Tradingstamps Prohibition and Discount-stamps Issue Act, 1908, for the purpose of extending the provisions ot that Act to forms of trading-coupons other than those covered by the Act. The measure was held over from the emergency session until the main session.

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