The Bursting Bubble

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 13

The Bursting Bubble

Sir,-—l)ur 1 Tiiiie Minister mid liis Marketing Minister are evidently endeavouring to make it appear that; it it> not the Government but the people that have been wasteful of their means. The Minister of .Marketing at all events has determined that no exports and no imports can be sent, out or brought in without a licence. Gnu anything be done by vjrtuous citizens today without a licence? Our Prime Minister assures as that the Marketing Minister's determinatiou to regulate imports) ami exports is not a political "stunt" bur. the "practical expression of our insulation plan." Splendid. But when our Prime Minister was in Great. Britain he pledged himself ami New Zealand with this: “For every pound you spend in buying our produets'we will spend your every pound in buying good goods.” . AVhy the change? Why this determinat ion to control the conduct and practice of the business of our business men in the carrying on of their respective enterprises lo whieli they have devoted and are devoting their lives? in another breath our Prime Minister rolls us in one of those interviews he issues perioiiicaliy "that there is nothing too good for the people of New Zealand” : and so they are to have the “best of everything," but the Minister of Marketing is to see to it that the quantities sKall be regulated. Most people would prefer to determine such matters .for themselves. Freedom and a sense of personal and property security are the breath of a nation's life.

But. our Prime Minister and his Minister of Marketing have sensed some emergency. although he says that this regulation of business “is not taken simply to meet that emergency.'’ Well, why are these honourable politicians assailing the freedom of our business men and producers of every kind? Freedom in production and in marketing can never reach its fullness and worth to individual and nation when any regulation, law or act of the administration places rhe smallest obstacle in the pathway of primary and industrial development: and it is a vain hope when any government attempts to regulate the scope, enterprise and ability of any of its citizens. Yet that is the way of Socialists. The stilling of those qualities in exercise that make for the prosperity and progress of a people has ever been the chief end of all Socialist dictators.

But the bubble of Socialism seems to be bursting. Tlie Minister of Marketing will have to find a couple of millions to square his butter account this year; and the people in New Zealand are being taxed 3d. to 4d. a lb. more in the price than the consumers in Great Britain have to pay for the same commodity. And it is patent from the fact that our £lOO 3 per cent, stock has fallen to £75 that it would be useless for our Prime Minister to go on the London market for his £14,000.000 loan ; so he is going to ask the people of New Zealand to come to his aid with £14.000.000 for railways, etc., when he so managed our railways last year that the people had to find £1.670,000 to make good what his management lost.—l am. etc..

J. D. SIEVWRIGHT. Wellington, December 7.