Planning In N.Z. Tar Away As Ever’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31123, 28 July 1966, Page 1

Planning In N.Z. Tar Away As Ever’

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 27. A small country like New Zealand, with a highly-centralised bureaucracy, would surely not find it a superhuman task to lay down the guide lines for a national plan of development, said Sir James Fletcher, chairman of Fletcher Holdings, Ltd., at the firm’s annual meeting. New Zealand was just entering one of its periodic crises which seemed to develop every five or six years, said Sir James Fletcher.

Under the regular cycle of increasing overseas funds, depletion until overseas reserves were in jeopardy, introduction of controls and restrictions until funds were restored and then a recurrence of the whole process, it became increasingly difficult for a business to plan its orderly development. “We still hear talk about planning—a national plan of development—but it seems to be as far away as it ever was,” said Sir James Fletcher. Better Liaison “I sometimes wonder whether the Government is really close enough to the views of businessmen. Much better liaison should be possible.” Ministers met a lot of people, but more often than not these were people wanting something specific from the Government. “It becomes a case of the wheel that does the squeaking getting more than its share of the grease,” he said. U.S. System There might be advantages In copying from the United

States, where the President’s council of business advisers was a helpful and influential body speaking for business as a whole without the elements of a pressure group. Sir James Fletcher suggested that a similar body for

ation, especially on the balance of payments, Sir James Fletcher said that Governments tended rather to negative measures to damp down the economy rather than positive steps to raise production and exports. ‘Not Tailor Made’ The phenomenal growth of Japan and Israel showed just what could be done, and also indicated that there was no tailor-made system, including economic orthodoxy which would fit all economies. “We in New Zealand have to find our own answers, to work out our own salvation, and development planning, not necessarily a rigid plan, may be one of them,” he said.

New Zealand, meeting the Prime Minister and his senior colleagues at regular intervals could be useful in formulating a national development plan. While conceding the seriousness of the present situ-