NEW TYRANNY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19724, 14 September 1929, Page 17

NEW TYRANNY.

POWER OP BUREAUCRATS. ADDRESS BT MR H. D. ACLAND. "We have in onr business, and in our daily life in our homes, to put up with constant interference and the tyranny of bureaucracy. Our Government, whether central or municipal, is wasteful and extravagant, and really in the hands of permanent officials," said the President of the Christchurch Citizens' Association, at its annua] meeting last night. Proceeding, Mr Acland said: "Democracy is of a kindly disposition, and we see it held up as a virtue that assistance must be given to all unfortunates in the community, whether their misfortunes are the results of their own actions or of other people, always of course, provided that the publie assistance rendered does not come, or appear to come, from the pockets of those who are promising the good things of this world.

'' So many of our well-intentioned citizens in high places overlook or ignore that most important factor in social problems, namely 'human nature.' Whenever any benefits are available, whether for the relief of distress, genuine or otherwise, it is only a very short while before there are plenty of beneficiaries asking for them. "Democracy has a way of disregarding inconvenient facts and attempts to ignore them and pass them by. We are disposed to blame Parliament and the Government, overlooking the fact that these two are only what the electors and the country choose to make them. Interference in business usually comes from the mistaken notion that private endeavour and individualism or competition or capitalism, is responsible for our social evils, whereas most of these are attributable to the interference of Governments, human nature, and the waste of- war.

"I am quite aware that economic inequality prevails, but in our attempts to reduce this care ought to be taken not to destroy and weaken individual enterprise and freedom. Some two and a half years ago when the problem of unemployment was becoming a public question I made this statement with regard to interference' and unemployment:—

"I. submit, that the time has arrived when the Government, the Arbitration Court, and Capital and Labour must face the facta. If this is not done then later on the existing depression must become worse and

unemployment be irfereased. "I venture to suggest that I was not altogether wrong. Unemployment has 1 increased since then, and is increasing. What is the cause! We do not hear much about it from America, where individual effort and freedom are given full scope. "I submit that our restrictive legislation, and restrictions in the production of wealth, are largely responsible. We hear criticisms frotn Socialist Members of Parliament about the large accumulations of deposits in the banks, -What is one of the main, causes of these accumulations? ' Is it not due %o the poliey of hostility shown by the Legislature to individual enU >rise with the result that thrifty people,,prefer .to--.-hoard. their money at a moderate rate interest instead in commercial and" manufacturing enterprise t Hence further individual development is restricted and unemployment continues. .... ,

"With regard to Government" regulations, some weeks ago most of us received a polite intimation that oar electrical switches were all wrong and must be replaced with insulated switches. Yet this last week we were told by one of the newspapers that it has now been decided that the regulations made by the Electrical Regulations Advisory Committee in Wellington were quite unnecessary. Had the members of the professional staff of any private firm done the same thing. and caused the waste of many thousands-of pounds of the firm's money I feel Mire that there would have been a good many vacancies in the staff and several'respectable professional men looking for new jobs when the boss realised what they had done. In New Zealand, however, I presume the committee still continues to invent new regulations and ' new restrictions. - -

"I have had to deal recently with a ease where eight different* officials or inspectors have been visiting a suburban kitchen in process of aHerarron to meet official requirements, and I understand they are still coming, and presumably all of these well-intentioned bureaucrats receive from the taxpayers or ratepayers comfortable salaries for much quite unnecessary inspecting. In regard to our State-owned or muni-cipal-owned enterprises there is * one aspeet I would like to call attention to, and that is the fact that all these concerns are entirely dependent for their capital upon the savings of individuals and private capitalism. The State never has successfully produced" wealth or things, or whatever yon choose to call capital, but it and our City Council can always be a grand spender of the money extracted from the individual eitizen.

"One of the justifications for charging 'interest* is that the lender takes a risk. With municipal loans there is practically no risky and/ a class is being built up of 'rentiers,' or non-producers, who live on their interest and become a heavy charge upon those working and producing. "I often wonder whether the ordinary person realises that our State Advances 'Department is indirectly a terrible burden upon the taxpayer of the country. I believe there are about 17 millions advanced to settlers, practically all of which is T>orrowed in London and is therefore free of all local income-tar and death duties. To this extent the mortgagors of the State Advances Department are a privileged aristocracy getting cheap money because it is free of income-tax and death duties. Furthermore, these so-called benefits are immediately capitalised, and it is doubtful if the borrowers to-day benefit in the way originally intended. The persons who have really benefited from cheap money in New Zealand were the large landholders, in both town and country, who were thus enabled to dispose of their properties to a much greater advantage than would otherwise have been the case.

"The Government's cheap money brought down the rate of interest, and as a direct resnlt greatly increased the price of land purchased by the Government for settlement purpose*. Except in the very early stages of land settlement, I doubt if the settlers have reaped any real material benefit. Their interest bill or rent remained much the same as when money was at 10 per cent., but the capita} to be paid for the land when the interest was at 5 per cent, woufd be £lO per acre instead of £5, had the cheaner money not been made available. "The huge sums raised by taxation in New Zealand at the present time so far from being evidence of the success of the 3tate enterprise are really evidence of the wonderful economic efflci eney of the capitalistic and individualistic system. Ultimately, as I have said elsewhere, this expenditure must cease, as the taxpayer don&ey wiU sooner or later sit down and.refuse to proceed further with bis JoacL.

"In a monarchy in the past when taxation has become oppressive, the people have occasionally dealt with

mocracy may find it necessary to take steps to protect the mass of the people against those plausible persons who seek public office. If members of local authorities could be personally liable for extravagance, mismanagement, or for unnecessary taxation during their term of office, then we might got more care taken by such bodies, and" more hevd for the real welfare of the community. For forty years or more public policy in democratic countries ha« been in the direction of interference" in "the distribution of wealth. The fact has. been overlooked or conveniently ■ ignored tha* the production of things' or .material wealth has been greatly reatrietexL

■.» "Tor my mind a property-owning demoeraey is a far better ideal than the Socialist atate. Society seems to swing towards various ideals every forty or fifty years. For fifty years prior to 1890 ita tendency was towards individual liberty. Here- in New Zfcafamd for the last thirty years it has gone in the opposite direction. Now there appears to be a decided ehange growing up in public sentiment. The Liberal Party in England upheld the flag of liberty, free exchange, freedom of contract, and freedom of opinion, and ali it stood for in the past. We-want those ideals again in New Zealand. Lord Oxford (Mr Asquith) stated them on his. retirement in 1926, and I do not think I can do better than close my remarks by quoting portions of what he then said: — "Liberalism means two things. The preservation and extension of liberty in every sphere of our national life, and the subordination of class interests to the interests of .the'community.. These two ideals were, and are, the life breath of the Liberal faith, and liberty means liberty in its positive a« well as its negative-sense. "A man is not free unless he has had the means and opportunities for education. "A man is not free unless he is at liberty to eombine with his fellows for any lawful purpose in which they have a common interest. "Nor is there real freedom in industry if it is carried on under the conditions which are injurious to thoae whom a man employs or with whom.heworks or to the health and well-being of his neighbours. "The liberty of each is circumscribed by the liberty of all. "The good of all is the good of eaea. "The general 6trike was a negation and a defiance of the fundamental articles of the Liberal creed. 'Labour means very different things to the. different wings and platoons of the heterogeneous army which for tae moment inarches with uneven steps and discordant battle cries under the Labour flag. But in the two Txta] matters to whieh I have Just referred its diverse sections are one and all;»t issue with liberals. The socialisation or nationalisation of production and distribution and the extinction of what is called Capitalism—by whatever name th*> ideal and the process for ite attainment is called —would starve the resources and «n time draw awav the lif'bVod of the great productive industries which decent fpr their efficiency on the free play of initiative and enterprise. . . "And Labour is becoming more and more a class organisation and an expression and embodiment of what ;i? called 'class consciousness.' "Surely the aim of anv Government worthv of the name, whether Municipal or State, should be to give free rem to enterprise and initiative with a.-npw to absorbing the whole of the manpower available in the community on a basis of mutual profit."