Ī,— l3A.

This Act, coming into force Ist September, 1935, any one engaging in a policy of selling goods at prices unreasonably low for the purpose of destroying competition or eliminating a competitor, makes it a criminal offence.

Mr. McCaul. Mr. O'Leary.] Mr. McCaul, you were here yesterday when I opened the case for the opposition to the Bill?— Yes. Did you hear what I submitted could be legally done under the Commercial Trusts Act at the present time ? —Yes. It appeared to me you evaded the major issues. lam not a lawyer, lam sorry, Sir —your remarks appeared very very sketchy using a lot of legal terms. I suggested that the trader does not need to sell the goods to any one whom he does not wish to sell them ; you know that is the legal position ? —Yes, provided he can prove a whole lot of things. Have you had advice that you can refuse to sell any one, foodstuffs, petrol, or anything else, do you not know that ?—Under certain circumstances. No, under any circumstances ; you can refuse to sell to any one at all, can you not ?—You may just as well go out of business, and, understand, lam not a lawyer —I am very sorry. You will admit that you can refuse to sell to anybody ? —No, I do not. Then I suggest you take advice on the matter. Do you admit that you can fix the price and you can refuse supplies ? —No, I do not know that. I am not a lawyer, but I have thirty-seven years of business knowledge in the business in which I am at present engaged, and I know that theoretically you can do thousands of things, but when it comes to the point you find that you cannot. The way you want to get over the difficulty is disregard for personal position and, by combination and boycott, insist on your prices being maintained. —No, it is not. I know that grocers have been put out of business by these chain stores. Have you any statistics to show the decrease or increase in the number of grocers in New Zealand of recent years ? —That information will be supplied. You act as president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce ? —No. I am president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Executive of Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand. You are a distributor for Bryant and May ?—Yes, my company—Philips and Pike, Limited—are distributors in New Zealand for Bryant and May, Bell, and Co., Ltd. Do you people supply National Distributors ? —No. Is it correct that at one stage you promised certain stores that you would not give National Distributors the- 7-per-cent. discount that you gave others ? Mr. McCaul: You know you put that as a sort of lawyer's question—l am not a lawyer.

46

Item. Cost. | Ketail Price. Hem. Cost. Retail Price. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 0 1 OJ 0 1 2 0 0 10 0 0 11 0 1 2} 0 1 2 0 0 9 0 0 10 012 013 0 0 5J 0 0 51 Oil Oil 0 10 014 0 0 6£ 007 00 3| 005 0 0 10 0 0 10 0 1 l| 0 1 3 0 0 10J 0 10 0 0 11 0 10 0 0 9* 0 1 0 0 0 9i 0 0 10 0 3 6J 035 0 0 9j 00 10 J 0 1 6| 018 0 0 6f 008 053 053 0 0 8* 009 0 0 9£ . 0 0 10 009 0 0 8 0 0 2i 0 0 2| 0 0 10 0 1 0 0 0 6J 0 0 8 0 0 6* 0 0 8 0 0 2* 003 015 028 0 0 2* 0 0 2* 0 0 10 0 1 0 0 0 2| 0 0 2J 011 0 14 047 056 0 1 2* 014 0 0 7* 009 0 0 2 00 2J 00 9 0 0 11 012 010 0 0 8J 008 012 014 0 2 8* 0 3 4 007 008 0 1 5f 0 17 0 I 11 0 13 022 025 0 1 3* 016 0 0 7| 0 0 8 0 0 7J 0 10 0 15 1* 0 16 3 0 0 8{ 0 0 9 0 12 Oil 0 13 3 0 14 0 0 0 6* 008 007 0 0 7* 007 008 01 4 017 0 0 5* 0 0 5* 0 13 2 0 14 8 0 0 6i 0 0 6 0 II 8 0 14 0 0 0 5f 0 0 7 0 6 2* 070 0 0 5* 0 0 8 2 13 5J 2 17 11* 3 7 2f 3 18 4 Average retail mark up on list as supplied by Government Statistician, 11-48 per cent.