The Press WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1941. Is This Democracy?

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23352, 11 June 1941, Page 6

The Press WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1941. Is This Democracy?

If in 1930 some student of politics is engaged in investigating the causes of the decline and fall of democratic government he might do worse than dig up the records of the Christchurch Emergency Precautions Scheme. To judge by the present state of this enterprise, he is not likely to find a better example of the way in which the democratic system can take a simple admirftstrative project, tie it up in a nightmarish tangle of red tape, and then hold an endless series of conferences and committee meetings to discover how the red tape can be unwound. The Christchurch Emergency Precautions Scheme was in course of preparation when the war began and was intended mainly to cope with the situation which .would be created by a serious earthquake. For obvious reasons, the war made it necessary to enlarge the scheme’s scope and put it in working order as soon as possible. Yet to-day, a year and nine months since war was declared, the scheme exists only on paper. The personnel to carry it out has not been trained or even enrolled; no move has yet been made to obtain the necessary equipment; and in any case there is no money to buy equipment. One reason for this inertia is that the scheme is hopelessly topheavy. To manage it there are enough committees to govern an empire—an executive committee of six members, 14 general committees each with from 16 to 20 members, about 20 sub-committees, and several committees of local authorities which have schemes of their own within the main scheme. This elaborate administrative mechanism seems immobilised by its own weight; it, has done little in 21 months and would probably do little in 21 years. A further source of difficulty is that in the area covered by the scheme there are at least 12 local authorities each independent in its own sphere. They can please themselves whether they co-operate in applying the scheme and in raising the necessary money. Some of them are now disposed to argue that the Government ought to pay the whole or part of the cost and are accordingly waiting to see what happens. A third source of difficulty is that no one yet knows what powers are vested in the local organisation and where its responsibilities begin and end. Already there have been several instances of its work overlapping with the work of State departments. One local committee went to the labour of working out a fire protection scheme which was no sooner complete than it was superseded by a Government scheme. Another- local committee has been working on the problem of transport; but it would seem that at least three State departments—the Transport Department, the Army Department, and the Railways Department—also have a transport plan, or possibly plans, under consideration. The local organisation has, at considerable cost, issued a pamphlet telling householders what to do in an emergency. It now appears that the Government also is issuing a pamphlet; and it is perhaps too much to,hope that the advice given in the two publications will be wholly consistent. Food supplies and evacuation are two other in which there appears to be a conflict of jurisdictions. It should be added, in fairness to those who have worked on the Christchurch scheme, that the local situation is not much worse. than ‘the situation elsewhere. In Wellington, to judgei from .a recent speech by Mr T. C. A. Hislcij?, there is the.same - story of delay, confusion; and vacillation. The responsibility for ending the impasse over the emergency. schemW rests squarely with the Government, which alone has the power to settle disputes between administrative agencies and to cut through red tape. If the Government believes emergency precautions schemes are needed—and it-has far more information on that point than local bodies or the general public—its duty is to put them into operation Without delay, if necessary by appointing in each area ah organiser with full powers of compulsion. The present fantastic muddle is not merely a danger to public security. It is an invitation to the people of New' Zealand to suspect that ; incompetence and inertia are general throughout their whole system of government. It is an invitation to them to think that the battle to preserve the democratic way of life is being lost onfhe -home front.