‘Antipathy’ To Work And Enterprise

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30738, 30 April 1965, Page 8

‘Antipathy’ To Work And Enterprise

"The Prw»" Special Servica

WANGANUI. April 29. "New Zealand seems to have developed an antipathy to work and a similar sort of attitude to enterprise," said the retiring president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand (Mr T. M. N. Rodgers) at the annual conference in Wanganui today. He said the welfare state must take its share of the blame, but it was by no means the whole cause. All the men are human and, to give of their best, they must see some adequate reward. The nature of the reward will not always be the same, and in some cases it is the achievement of an ideal, but in most cases it is the enjoyment of the result of effort and enterprise and all risks taken to that end,” he said.

“1 use the words ‘effort’ and ‘enterprise.’ 1 have used the word ‘work,’ but be it noted that 1 do not refer to the mere filling in of time for eight hours a day. What 1 have said about enterprise and effort refers equally to the putting up of risk capital, which is something of which this country is all too short. Are the rewards under our present system sufficient to inspire men to give their best in work, talent, enterprise and risk capital? I am sure that you will all agree that they are not, which of course means that we are labouring under a measure of discouragement, added to the feeling that in any case even if we are slack the State will look after us. Taxation

“This is totally wrong, and an unacceptable state of affairs for any country, but particularly for New Zealand, which is a young, developing

country dependent on the outside world for so many ~f the things which cannot : e produced here and is dependent also on the sale overseas of such products as v.« can export. As if this potion was not difficult enoug.i we have superimposed on it the incidence of intern. | revenue to the point of imposition.

“I have suggested that the rewards for enterprise and effort are inadequate. Glib

statements about incentives and the like do go part of the way, and the incentives introduced by the Government during the last few years are undoubtedly steps in the right direction But. what is the final result? We reach the position when, in round figures, income tas is two-thirds of one's income and when up to 40 per eent of one’s estate is extracted after death. These factors tend to discourage enterprise and to divert attention from the productive field into the direction of endeavouring to defeat the depredations of the tax gatherer. “It is well known that our taxation set-up makes it difficult, if not impossible, to build up reserves for replacement or extension of plant, buildings, and other capital assets at ever-increasing cost, to say nothing of the saving of something for future capital investment.

“It is no wonder then, that our industries, including farming, may tend to develop something of the feeling of the individual affected, as 1 have mentioned earlier, by various influences tending to

dampen his enterprise and initiative,” Mr Rodgers said.