The Dominion FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1929. AN ECONOMIC GENERAL STAFF

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 74, 20 December 1929, Page 6

The Dominion FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1929. AN ECONOMIC GENERAL STAFF

It has been reported by cable on several occasions that the British Prime Minister has from time to tiiqe sought of leadins economists and men of affairs on the important and difficult problems with which his Government, is confronted. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald is now considering regularising the consultations, lifting'them from their present informal level, and giving them a definite place in the administrative machinery of the State by the creation of an Economic General Staff. The idea is not new. It has been discussed and partly applied in many countries. We have now reached the stage, in New Zealand and elsewhere, where the necessity for such a. development is apparent to clear thinkers of all shades of political opinion. The problems that face a modern Parliament are steadily becoming more technical and complex. A lifetime of study would not be sufficient to acquaint members with the minutue of all the Bills brought forward in a single session. On .all such Bills, however, a vote must be given. It is in the public interest that such decisions should be guided by competent expert advice. . To some extent this is achieved now, since the advice of the expert in matters relating to agriculture, public health, engineering, and so on is almost invariably taken. dhe time must come when the advice of the economic expert, on technical problems as distinct from general policy, will be accepted in a similar manner. To a greater or less extent nearly all our general problems involve economic questions. Such, for example, are questions of money and banking, of tariffs and preference, of employment and migration, of land settlement and public works, of State trading and taxation. Our failure to deal effectively with many of these important issues is due largely to the lack of a preliminary scientific survey of the economic factors involved, and a want of data that can be gathered only by statisticians working under expert economic direction. To supply this want is the task of an Economic General Staff. 1 , , At the present time, it is true, some light can be shed upon these questions by the appointment of Commissions of Inquiry. The value of the work of such bodies, however, is usually impaired by the fact that they are appointed after the problem has become so urgent that action cannot wait upon skilled advice, and often their reports are so belated as to be of little practical Value when completed. Such a system, further, does not supply continuity, or allow of the building up of a co-ordinated body of expert information. Since Cabinet has no such body of skilled economic advice continuously available, future troubles are not sufficiently anticipated. The result is that when difficulties do arise some hasty and inadequate political solution is improvised that merely postpones the issue, or makes the ultimate solution more difficult than ever. Politicians are not suited by temperament or training for the work, neither are experts suited for politics. The creation of an Economic General Staff would co-ordinate the activities of both types of workers to the immense advantage of the community. The politician lives in the present, and pays attention to economic problems only when they are so urgent as to require immediate legislation. A General Staff would constitute a thinking Department taking a longrun view, and available all the time to advise Cabinet in a scientific arid non-partisan spirit. ■ With the growing complexity of national administration, and the increasing importance of the economic factor in modern life, some such development is necessary if sound government on democratic principles is to be preserved from breaking down under its own weight.