"Achievement will not he easy"

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32861, 9 March 1972, Page 2

"Achievement will not he easy"

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 8.

The targets suggested would not be easily achieved, said the Prime Minister (Mr Marshall) to the second National Development Conference, which opened in Wellington today.

The targets were, and s were intended to be, a ! challenge to the country, ( he said. (

“As in the first conference, acceptance of changes in attitudes and policies: will in some cases be necessary," said Mr Marshall, who until recently was chairman of the National Development Council. “To achieve these objectives there must be incentives and motives sufficiently

strong to induce the effort to success. "For the producer, the trader, the businessman, the obvious motive is a fair return on the capital he invests, and a fair profit for his efforts.

“For the worker, an equally fair share of the increased wealth which we are aiming to produce is the most potent inducement. “For all of us, as citizens, a higher standard or living is the reward, but in a .more indefinable sense a standard of better living and a happier community are what we are looking for. “We have the targets which will give us these worthwhile rewards,” the Prime Minister said. “They are worth working for.” GOVT PLANS

While there were some signs that business confidence had begun to recover, the Government had concluded last month that a more rapid .rate of growth could be supported in some areas of the economy. But further steps to encourage investment would be unlikely to achieve much without the prospect of greater stability in prices and costs. The Government was not dedicated to growth at any cost, said the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon).

Mr Muldoon, who is chairman of the National Development Conference, said that one of the concepts around which the Government had developed its over-all policy of economic planning was the setting of broad objectives

or targets, rather than a precise measure.

“We see today countries with high growth rates where the environment has been destroyed to the extent that the conditions of fiay-to-day living are intolerable. “We have environmental problems in New Zealand but by world standards they are small, and there is no doubt that we can get an adequate rate of growth while at the same time preserving the unique advantages of life in this land,” said Mr Muldoon.

Emphasising that the theme of the conference was “growth for better living” Mr Muldoon said that throughout the world increasing emphasis was being placed on the non-economic aspects of development—the social, cultural and physical environment in which man lives.

"It is essential, however, that we should maintain a balance between these factors and basic economic growth, which provides the wealth without which improved living standards are impossible to obtain.”