1.—13 a.

Witness : Mr. Paget. Mr. Paget read the following statement: — Evidence to be Submitted to the Parliamentary Committee on proposed Amendments to the Commercial Trusts Act by the New Zealand Retail Tobacconists and Hairdressers' Federation (Incorporated). 360 Lambton Quay, Wellington, 3rd October, 1935. The executive of the New Zealand Retail Tobacconists and Hairdressers' Federation (Incorporated), assembled in Wellington on September 3rd and 4th of this year, discussed the proposals of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, with regard to the amendments of the Commercial Trusts Act, and unanimously agreed as follows : — That after ten months of successful price-fixation in the tobacco trade, we affirm the principle of price-stablization, and support the action of the Chambers of Commerce. In putting on record the success of stabilization in our trade, we would draw attention to the absence of friction or irritation in the trade or with the public when the change took place. We know of no section of the retail tobacco traders that would revert to the old style of cutting, and the uncertainty from day to day, what lines will be slaughtered next. Moreover, all traders reported remarks by many different customers, upon the satisfaction of having one price for each line in all shops alike. There may be detailed improvements which many of us would like to have made, but we are unanimous in affirming the principle of price stabilization, and its necessity, if the thousands of small traders, their employees and their dependents, are to maintain a reasonable standard of living. We would also remind those interested that the most prosperous and contented years in England were the years of the small traders, in their thousands all able to make a modest but comfortable livelihood, and it is such a livelihood we retailers seek to have secured to us and our employees.

Witness : Mr. Paget, representing the New Zealand Hairdressers' and Tobacconists' Federation (Incorporated). Mr. Paget: I have as g, member of the associations and federations of tobacconists been before you several times. You were good enough to say that you thought you had done with us, but this time it is rather a pleasure to be able to say " thank you " instead of " why cannot you give something." We have been before you so often —but at last Parliament removed tobacco goods from the Schedule to the Commercial Trusts Act, and then you said " get away and go and settle your own differences and do not come back again." You also threatened us that it could easily be put back in the Schedule. It is a great pleasure to be able to come and say, on behalf of the federation, that we have got a measure of stabilization which has given a great sense of satisfaction, that has hurt nobody, and has been a measure of justice all round. It is also a great relief on my part to note our organization is unable to supply definite statistics —that since stabilization we believe that there are about four hundred men back in the tobacco trade. I can tell you, definitely that there are at least ten in Wellington ; and that there are several more employees engaged. Apart from that, although we are far from satisfied with our rates of profit, we are definitely satisfied that a trade, full of difficulties and full of irritations, has been put on a very much sounder basis, and it is absolutely definite that the public have not grumbled at the change ;it is absolutely definite also that retailers have not made a fortune —I do not know anybody who has. The retailers want more profit than they are getting, but in an attempt to get more profit they would not jeopardize the stabilization fixed as it is at present. Mr. Harris.] Under price-stabilization, as you call it, in your trade apparently it has been possible to come to what you regard as a satisfactory arrangement for the sale of tobacco and cigarettes, both from the standpoint of the shopkeeper and the public generally ? —Exactly. The fact does still remain that in the removal of tobacco and cigarettes from the Schedule to the Commercial Trusts Act it is now possible for a combination of merchants so to act as to increase the price against the consuming public ? —The arrangement is between retailers, the merchants, and the manufacturers, and manufacturers certainly can, at the present time, to some extent, dictate our prices and our terms, but what we have found is this : that competition has kept prices down. Is there any competition at all; are you not all on the same footing ? —There is decided competition between the manufacturers and agents. The position is this : that prices are stabilized at a reasonable rate, otherwise the market would have been flooded with dozens and dozens of other lines which would probably have broken down stabilization. No one can say that any of the tobacco or cigarette prices are unreasonable ; and that is why, because the manufacturers must recognize that there is always further competition waiting for them. You have limited competition ?—What has taken place is that a number of other lines would have come on to the market; but with the arrangement now made that competition is removed. lam glad to say that all sections of the trade have kept profits within bounds—they keep prices well within bounds ; the result is that we have eliminated competition except perhaps in the wholesale trade. The manufacturers still have their output to keep up, and the market is more or less limited ; they have had to keep within bounds. It would be absolutely disastrous for the manufacturers to raise prices unreasonably. What would be the result if the manufacturers, the distributors, and the retailers decided to raise the price of the present 6d. packet of cigarettes to Bd. ? —ln six months you would have a flood of 6d. cigarettes from overseas, from outside people altogether. The same thing happens if by raising those

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