Catalogue Number: 1759
Correspondence to and from the Victorian Optical Association (VOA) to do with competition and misleading advertising
Category: Papers
Sub-Category: Optometry Association papers, reports
Year Of Publication/Manufacture: 1935 to 1940
Time Period: 1900 to 1939
Description Of Item: Correspondence to and from the Victorian Optical Association (VOA) to do with competition, including: (1) Letter from Optical Prescriptions Spectacle Makers (OPSM) to the VOA signed by LD Bakewell, Manager, dated April 6 1935 alluding to a planned meeting of optical people on price cutting and threatening retaliation if there is any attempt to interfere with OPSM's business (2) letter from the VOA to the Better Business Council dated April 22 1933 complaining about three misleading advertisments by Coles and Garrard and John Browning and seeking the BBC intervention and the reply of the BBC dated June 12 1933 (3) letter from S Raphael of John Browning Pty Ltd Opticians dated July 6 1937 lodging a complaint about the VOA's breaches of its procedures and rules and resigning from the propaganda committee and a reply from the VOA dated July 14 (4) letter from G H Morton ophthalmic optician of Warnambool dated June 2 1938 to the VOA complaining about a competitor using the suffix MVOA and the words 'qualified optician' and a reply stating that use of MVOA is accpetable if membership pre-dates 1931 after which date membership has to be stated in words and that the claim of qualified optician is acceptable provided the claim is not that the qualification has been obtained by examination (5) two letters to the VOA from CM Dawe of Bendigo dated Nov 16 and Nov 23 1938 complaining about the dispensing of spectacle prescriptions by OPSM for the Bendigo Medical Eye Unit and enclosing a leaflet advertsing the Eye Unit and its fees including the provision of glasses at reduced cost and a repy from the VOA and admitting concern but an inability to act (6) letter to the VOA from A A White, a Ballarat optometrist, dated Oct 26 1940 complaining about a hairdresser and tobaconist H Fricke selling ready made glasses for two shillings and six pence alleging that the hairdressr does a 'rough test' and letters from the VOA to the Registration Board dated Nov 4 1940 asking that the matter be investigated
Historical Significance: The battle about regulation of competition (and advertising) is evident in these letters from the late 1930s including ready made glasses and the competition from OPSM as the preferred dispenser of ophthalomological prescriptions for glasses.
Condition: Good
Location: Archive office. Pamphlet and ephemera filing cabinet. Drawer 4
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