EXTENT OF LEGISLATIVE CONTROL

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22109, 3 June 1937, Page 10

EXTENT OF LEGISLATIVE CONTROL

“EYE-OPENER” FOR ENGLISH BUSINESSMAN “Before I left England I had no idea of the extent of legislative control in New Zealand. It was an eyeopener for me,” said Mr Arthur Green, managing director of the firm of Alex. Cowan and Sons, Ltd., paper makers, London, who is at present at Christchurch during a visit to the Dominion. He told a reporter last evening that it did not strike him that New Zealand was a country which would attract manufacturers and those with money to invest. His firm had a factory in Wellington which produced stationery, but it was felt doubtful if any more money should be spent in New Zealand. “It is a question of how long industry can carry on standing up to increased charges and high taxation,” he said. “One hears everywhere of the difficulties that are being experienced. They have been forced home on me from Auckland to Dunedin during conversations with businessmen, and I have also observed the effect on our own business. But New Zealanders are a sensible people, and, having tried the extreme, will no doubt ease the position as time goes on. Some regulation was necessary, but not to such an bxtent as has taken p’ace.” Mr Green said that he wondered if everything possible was being done to help agriculture, which must be the mainstay of the Dominion. The country seemed wonderfully fertile, and with Now Zealand’s isolation it was difficult to see any very great development outside agriculture.