The Press MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1938. Iron and Steel Industry

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22344, 7 March 1938, Page 8

The Press MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1938. Iron and Steel Industry

In view of the value of an iron and steel industry to the Dominion the Government’s consideration of plans to develop the Onekaka iron sands could only be welcomed. There was possible here a distinct measure of progress in several respects. The Dominion would begin to supply from its own resources one of its greatest and most constant needs. Its industrial basis would be widened. Employment in the new industry, considerable in itself, would stimulate employment in others, notably coal mining. Any plan which promised such development on conditions of limited public responsibility and liability would have commanded approval accordingly. It is regrettable that the Government has seen merely an opportunity to create a new State monopoly and has designed clause after clause of the Iron and Steel Industry Bill to that end. This is not a bill to develop Onekaka; it is a bill to set up a new State enterprise, essentially monopolistic, and subject to no important limit but that of borrowing power. Since section 8 gives the Minister for Finance power to borrow up to £5,000,000 for the establishment and conduct of the industry, this limit should not very soon intolerably restrict socialist ambitions. They are given ample scope in the bill. Its early clauses provide for the appointment of “ not “ more than three ” Commissioners, to direct operations under the Minister for Industries and Commerce. (The rate at which these officers are to be paid is left to be fixed in regulations issued by Order-in-Council.) Once the bill becomes law, the Commissioners alone are to be entitled to mine for iron ore on any lands in New Zealand. Thus any field discovered in future must either remain undeveloped or be developed by the Commissioners. Secured in this way from any possibility of competition from private enterprise in the primary industry, they are, however, fully empowered to extend the range of their own enterprise and to make if competitive. Section 5 authorises them not merely to mine ore and smelt it wherever they think fit but to manufacture iron and steel. “ for use by the Government or for sale,” and goods consisting wholly or substantially of iron or steel: and the same section authorises them, further, to “ carry on any other business, “ undertaking, or operations which in their “ opinion are ancillary to or are necessary or “ convenient for the effective and economic “ exercise of their powers.” Not merely connected enterprises may be undertaken; not merely necessary ones. Simple convenience is sufficient warrant for any departure from the central business of extracting ore and making iron and steel. In other words, no further authority than this section is required to branch out from iron and steel into the manufacture of machines, tools, and ironware of any sort and. if it seems “ convenient,” to set up shop and sell them. A sub-section, whicfi expressly disclaims any intention of “ limiting the gener- “ ality ” of this wide licence, directs the Commissioners’ attention to some ventures which. ‘‘ as and whenever they think fit,” they may embark upon. These include mining for coal or any other minerals required and constructing, erecting, or acquiring buildings, plant, machinery, tramways, ships,, or any other sort of “ appliances or works.” Not even under cover of a general authorisation but quite specifically, a bill to commence a State iron and steel industry reaches out to shipping and shipbuilding. There is, of course, not the smallest hint in this bill of any conditions by which the Commissioners are to be bound in carrying on any competitive undertaking. In other words, the new monopoly may compete on familiar terms of advantage and privilege with industries and trades that must bear every burden of the taxing, rating, and licensing system. The country was prepared to see something done to found a new industry. It sees the erection of a new, ramifying department of socialist enterprise, leaning on a monopoly but authorised to assume all the benefits of wider competition without any of the risks.