INDUSTRIAL REGULATIONS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23203, 14 December 1940, Page 15

INDUSTRIAL REGULATIONS

TO CORRESPONDENTS

Owing to the necessity for conserving space, correspondents are asked to make their letters as brief as possible. Only letters considered to be of outstanding importance may exceed 200 words.—Ed., “The Press.”

Justice.—No room tor further discussion on that subject. R. Hursthousc.—Address not given.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir.—The powers taken by the Bureau of Industry under the Industrial Regulations imply that the committee and bureau will be miraculously endowed with technical, expert, and commercial knowledge of all trades and businesses in the Dominion. This has not hitherto been proved. The bureau will have power to dea firm’s trading area, and the extent of its land, buildings and plant, also, the limit of an industrialist’s production, where he shall continue to purchase his raw materials and other goods, who shall be his agents, and where and what shall be their methods and scope. His prices will be fixed without relation to the extent of his costs, and he will not be able to add customers he wants to his list, nor produce a seconds quality of goods if it is wanted by them. What stupendous and varied knowledge is assumed to be possessed by these officers! How much business will be lost while the bureau is educating itself, or making up its mind? (It has been known to defer urgent decisions for weeks because of holidays.) The mistakes of Government departments, which have meddled with merchandising and merchandise during the last few years show clearly that their training and experience in business are not sound • nor adequate, especially in times, of crisis. When, however, they will handle the business, the capital, and the future of traders generally, and the many dependants on these businesses, the prospects arc grave.

A very powerful New Zealand licensing authority recently said: “If nothing happens and we are organised, what docs it matter if some individual has been more or less inconvenienced. It doesn’t matter one bit.” Great is organisation! But organisation, even with a very big bureau, is a poor substitute for daily needs.— Yours, etc., ' Wm. MACHIN. December 12, 1940.