The Press TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1938. Control of Imports

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22594, 27 December 1938, Page 8

The Press TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1938. Control of Imports

When officers of the Customs Department attended to answer questions at a meeting arranged by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce last week, their replies filled out to some extent the gaps left by Ministerial. statements on the new import licensing system, but left information on some important points as much to be desired as before. In part, no doubt, the officers were prevented from answering by V.'.s incompleteness of their own instructions. When asked whether it was not true that some questions raised at the meeting had not been considered by the Government before the regulations were adopted, they replied that it was “ impossible to introduce new regulations with- “ out some problems arising ” : which may bo taken as an admission, sustained in the form of some answers, that the Government is feeling its way through unforeseen difficulties. But in part the reticence of the officials was due to their inability to speak for the Government on issues of policy; and this was plainly stated. One questioner’s object was to find out “ what particular classes of goods ’’ were chiefly to be brought under limitation by the licensing system, and what were to be classed as luxuries and what as necessaries. The answer was that “ the matter was purely one “of policy.” That is certainly true, and it is certainly a reason why officials should not anticipate Ministers; but it is not a reason why importers and the public generally should be left in the dark. On the contrary, because it is a matter of policy, and of vitally important policy, the Government’s intentions and decisions should be mads known as fully and as clearly and as soon as possible. It is obvious enough that the answer to this question about import limitations may be gradually pieced together and built up from specific figures and by inference, as applications are dealt with and licences granted; but this ts not the process by which traders and consumers should learn what the Government is doing and intends to do with their market and its supplies. The process should not be one in which importers and consumers must work back from effects, as they emerge, to the nature and extent of the Cabinet’s decisions. This is a slow, dubious, difficult, and dangerous process. Traders and consumers are entitled to early and direct information from the Government. ‘ Commercial and personal plans, commercial and personal budgets are directly affected and may be seriously affected. The normal freedom of buyers and sellers has been suddenly restricted, and the restriction may be as severe as it is sudden. The Government has no right to expect, from the interests over which it has set this new power, the unquestioning assent that will wait to see how it is used. The rights of the situation remain with the trader and the consumer, to whom the Government should define, explain, and justify, so far as it can, the new conditions it is imposing on them. “ Policy ” is not a word that excuses the turning out of the lights on the people’s business. It is a word that signifies the need for more light. The demand for it should be insistent.