THE NEW TYRANNY

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19113, 23 September 1927, Page 8

THE NEW TYRANNY

MANIA FOR REGULATION. ADDRESS BY MR H. D. ACLAND. "We are losing, and we have lost our sense of individual liberty. To my mind democracy, of all forms of Government, should cherish. - liberty more than any other thing." Air H. D. Acland, president of the Citizens' and Ratepayers' Association, took as the subject of his presidential address before the annual meeting of the Association last night "The Mania for Regulation," in the course of which he used the words quoted above. They could accept democracy, Mr Acland said, as an institution that had come to stay for a certain period, at least, in British communities. Fifty or sixty years ago one of the prevailing notions with regard to politics was the desire for liberty; that notion seemed now to have departed from the ordinary individual. Scarcely a day passed without regulations appearing taking away privileges and' rights, and interfering with the daily life of the individual. There was no detail too minute to be dealt with by The result was that they had created, and were continuing to create, an enormous army of non-producers—-(Hear, hear!) —which had to be supported by the citizens, the taxpayers, and the workers. They had those nonproducers in the shape of inspectors. They had unions of employers and employees adding to these regulations, and they had the Court of Arbitration laying down most extraordinary details and interfering with everybody's business. Within the past few days the Government had brought down proposals for an exceedingly complicated Shops and Offices Act. He had read in the "Law Reports" that the Supreme Court solemnly had decided that a stone-crusher on a road is not a factory within the meaning of the Factories Act. (Laughter.) Apparently, some zealous Government inspector had attempted to establish the fact that it was a factory! Municipal Milk Supply. "In Christchurch we know there i<going to be an attempt to establish a municipal milk supply," _ Mr Acland continued. "To my mind if they do so it means a monopoly and more restrictions on the community, and the consumer and taxpayer will have to pay. "A member of the Council, I notice, wanted restrictions regarding seats in theatres. There, again, we have the mania for interference. No one need go to the pictures, and, after all, why should not the managers of the theatres run their businesses as they want to?" The Way Out? They would find, he continued, that the greater number of people iu this world, when they got power, were inclined to be tyrannical, and that partly explained why all these restrictions were being imposed. One of the reasons that America; was so successful was the absence of restriction of trade within the United States. A map of Europe showing the tariff walls looked like a maze. Democracy was gradually building up a giant bureaucracy which, ultimately, would devour it. To displace the party in power the other party came forward with a progressive policy which meant more taxation, more laws, and further restrictions, and the result came back to this: That they were losing and had lost their sense of individual liberty. If something I were not done, and if the community did not realise what was going on, sooner or later there would be some sort of revolution against all these restrictions. People would do what was done in Rome—set up some form** of absolute monarchy which they would find meant freedom for the individual. In this country the Government was not in the hands of the people but in the hands of a large body of civil servants, of non-producers. That was one of the reasons why the cost of living was getting so great, and it would go on getting greater and greater unless some steps were taken to get rid of the enormous number of restrictions—-re-strictions that were being-piled on the people every day of the week, and every week of the year. (Applause.)