Return To Pioneer Spirit Suggested

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30578, 22 October 1964, Page 20

Return To Pioneer Spirit Suggested

Instead of leaning heavily on the Government when in difficulties it was up to all members of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce to get back to the individualism their forefathers created in forging their future in New Zealand, said the retiring president of the chamber (Mr E. Fraser) yesterday.

In his address to the chamber’s annual meeting, Mr Fraser said that the need for new controls in New Zealand was basically the over-valua-tion of the currency. “But the gap is not yet wide enough to require devaluation,” he said. “The latest controls are one more example of the costs of inflation.”

Mr Fraser said he thought it would be difficult to police the new legislation. “Because of these increasing controls, New Zealand businessmen are becoming, as one economist has stated, a nation of tax evaders, import licence traffickers, etc., and even buy 5s British postal notes to further their aims,” he said. Mr Fraser said that in his opinion New Zealand could not look forward to a continuance of high prices In its exports.

The departure of Mr Khrushchev, the change in British politics, and China’s first nuclear explosion, he

said, would all have an effect on New Zealand.

A sombre note, said Mr Fraser, was the prediction of the Minister of Labour (Mr Shand) that there would be a substantial increase in bulk supply charges of electricity. “It will be interesting to ascertain whether the supply for private use would be reflected in the charges for industry,” said Mr Fraser. “Cheap power is essential for the development of industry in New Zealand.” Mr Fraser said that Canterbury had very few industries which were dependent on others. If it had one main industry supporting three or four minor industries, the advancement in this district would be beneficial to all. Any system in New Zealand, whether it was tariff restrictions, import control or exchange control, he said, could only work provided the overseas funds were available.

Mr Fraser said it might be advantageous if all interested parties formed themselves into a committee to investigate the industrial potential of Canterbury. All incentives to both primary and secondary industries, said Mr Fraser, were problematical unless New Zealand could produce all classes of commodities at a figure commensurate with the prices obtained elsewhere.