System in Fiji

Attack On Price Control System in Fiji

From Our Own Correspondent

Suva, Feb. 26

“rpHE more the price is controlled by J. the Government the less dalo (taro) appears to reach places at which it is controlled,” said Mr. H. E, Snell, managing director of Morris Hedstrom.

Ltd., when criticising aspects of Fiji’s price control system at a meeting of the Suva Chamber of Commerce recently.

The case of a Fijian dalo-seller at the Suva market who was fined £5 for over charging was quoted by Mr. Snell as an example of “some of the ironies involved.”

He pointed out that if the Fijian vendor had chosen to sell his dalo in the Suva suburbs instead of in central Suva he could have charged whatever he liked without risking prosecution. (In Suva there has been a dalo-famine for months, but this staple Fijian foodstuff is usually available in the suburbs, where the price is not controlled.) The vendor had said in the Magistrate’s Court that as soon as he appeared at the market with the dalo the crowd had rushed at him. Money had been thrust in his hand before the dalo could be weighed and the result was a police pro secution for charging 7/6 instead of the controlled price of 4/1.

Mr. Snell said he doubted if, during the ten years’ existence of price control legis lation in Fiji, there had been a single prosecution involving intentional pro fiteering.

“That there has been profiteering on a large scale is probable,” he said, “quite extensive profiteering in drapery, for example, during the time drapery was short; profiteering in a mild way on rice for practically ten years, and profiteer ing in hard liquor during the American invasion of Fiji.

“But so far as I can remember, the Price Controller has utterly failed to de tect such profiteering. All that he and his agents, the police, have been able to do has been to detect and prosecute trivialities.”

THREE years ago Mr. Snell, in the Chamber of Commerce strongly ad vocated the abolition of price control altogether. The result then was a sharp reaction by those who obviously regarded control, however inadequately it might be enforced, as a protection against possible exploitation by European and Asiatic re tailers.

This time Mr. Snell offered a compro mise; “The remedy is easy. Let us ask the Government that no prosecutions should be made by a Government de partment under the Price of Goods Ordinance unless that prosecution is ap proved by the Attorney-General.”

A motion along these lines, carried un animously by the chamber, has been sent to the Colonial Secretary.

Administrative officers in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands have been moved around. Mr. W. W. Miller has gone from the Secretariat to Canton Island, to take charge of the Phoenix Islands district. Lieut-Colonel Paul Laxton, who was at Canton Island, and who has been under medical care in New Zealand for a while, goes to Ocean Island, to relieve Mr. R. J. Keegan. Mr. Keegan is going to Britain, on long leave. Mr. McKenzie, who temporarily relieved at Canton Island, has now gone to New Zealand, where his wife has undergone a serious operation.