Call For Indicative National Planning

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30534, 1 September 1964, Page 18

Call For Indicative National Planning

i The case for national planIning—“lndicative rather than coercive” —was argued by an economist at the fourth New Zealand Geography Conference at Dunedin last week.

“Development of New Zealand’s resources should not proceed piecemeal, but should be set within a growth plan,” said Dr. J. T. Ward, senior lecturer in agricultural economics at Lincoln College. He said New Zealand should set un a national planning council to assess individual development projects and coordinate them into an over-all scheme. The council should set objectives and suggest ways to attain them, but it should be for private enterprise to carry many of them through without coercion. Cost-benefit Analysis

The “cost-benefit" technique developed recently by economists enabled one project to be measured against another in terms of profitability (short-term or long-term), export earnings, replacement of imports and so on. In the United States, large projects could not be submitted to Congress until they had been subjected to cost-benefit analysis. In New Zealand the technique could be applied to such projects as the Manapouri and Tongariro power projects, the aluminium industry for Bluff, a new harbour bridge for Auckland, agricultural and forestry development or the Otago sugarbeet proposal. Because of New Zealand’s chronic balance-of-payments crisis, the effect of major projects on the balance of payments should be carefully considered in future planning. Because planning had been neglected, the country was living on a hand-to-mouth basis, he claimed. Slow Rate Of Growth

New Zealand’s rate of growth over the last 10 years had been one of the lowest in the Western world. By 1973 New Zealand would have a population of three million and an annual increase in production of four per cent was necessary to maintain an annual increase in living standards of two per cent. Planning at present was little more than formalised guesswork, but work was be-

ing done at Lincoln and Massey Colleges which would make possible more accurate assessments of competitive projects. “It is possible that some of the industries set up in New Zealand in recent years would not have been started had they been subjected to cost-benefit analysis first,” he said. Dr. Ward said there was no lack of problems to be tackled, but there Was a shortage of trained people to work on them. “It can't be done by well-meaning amateurs. W’e should get away from the idea that we can solve all our problems by setting up a committee.”

Oven Fire.—An oven fire in the home of Mr M. Adams, 322 Madras street, at 4.24 p.m. yesterday, caused no damage. Firemen from the headquarters station attended.