The Press WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1953. Marketing

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26986, 11 March 1953, Page 8

The Press WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1953. Marketing

Not many in New Zealand will regret the winding-up of the Market- | ing Department. • This is already in most respects an accomplished fact, !to the credit of the present Government; but it has yet to be completed and formalised in legislation which ! will be brought down this year. The | department has, of course, served ; valuable purposes, notably during ' the recent war, when it was necesi sary for the Government to take ; control of primary (and other) pro- ' duction to ensure that it was used to the best advantage of the country i and its allies. But the inherent ; weaknesses of State trading depart- ■ ments, their slowness, inflexibility I and marked tendency to multiply , controls and to expand the staffs 'which administer them, have since been demonstrated on innumerable occasions in the operations of the department—often to the dissatisfaction of the producers and the impatience of the consuming public. Perhaps the most valuable contribution made by the department to the public welfare has been the slow but steady rescue of the town milk industry from a state of chaos that was injurious to producers and consumers alike. But even here, it cannot be doubted that a government sufficiently resolute upon the task would st#l have achieved the result by other means. With the end of the Marketing De- = partment in sight, it is timely to reflect that the department is, in a |way, an important political symbol, sit represents the Labour Govern- • ment’s faith in the planned economy • and in State intervention in the | commercial life of the community. 'lts abolition and the transfer of its functions to other bodies represent !the present Government’s belief in free, competitive enterprise and in j the -ability of producers to market their own produce in the most effii cient way. When the Marketing Act .. was amended on the outbreak of the I last war, the greatly-enlarged i powers of control given to the department were recognised as a I necessary war-time expedient. But an incautious remark by Mr Nash )mad£ it abundantly clear that the 'Government thought of these extended powers not as temporary j measures for the duration of an ' emergency, but as a part of the : permanent machinery of State con- | trol of industry. The Marketing Department will soon disappear; but it will continue to influence the commercial life of the country, both for good and bad, for a long time to come. Under its tutelage producers have learnt to co-operate to secure fair returns for their investment and their work; and those who are tempted to think that this is only a polite way of say- . ing that they have learnt to combine to extort higher prices from the public should reflect that the interest of neither the producer nor the consumer is served, in the long run, by prices which make it unprofitable to produce. Producers may have learnt something of the art of marketing from the department; but that may be doubted. Certainly the producer organisations which have taken over or are taking over the functions of the department should recognise the dangers in their inheritance. They will be wise to keep clearly in view the benefits of the freedom which is denied to government departments. Red tape and rigid administrative procedures may be necessary in a State trading enterprise; but they undermine the basis of mutually satisfactory trading relations between producers and consumers.