PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 56, 7 March 1930, Page 11

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

DEMANDS FAIR FIELD

PRIME MINISTER'S SUPPORT

(By Associated Chambers of Commerce.

A little more than a year ago—on 6th February, 1929, to be precise—a very large,deputation of business and professional men, representative of, all parts of the Dominion, waited upon Sir Joseph Ward, who two months previously had been installed in the office of Prime Minister in succession to the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, with a request that he would give effect, with all convenient speed, to the opinions ho had expressed from time to time, I concerning the unfair competition by State and local body undertakings with legitimate private enterprise. Mr. C. P. A gar, now the president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, was the principal spokesman on behalf of the deputation, and having" presented the case against promiscuous State and local body trading, he submitted'to. the Minister the following resolution adapted by the Nineteen Twenty-Eight Committee, an organisation now absorbed by the Associated Chambers of Commerce: — "This conference congratulates, the Government on the recent utterances of Cabinet Ministers definitely deprecating Government competition and interference with legitimate private trading and business and professional enterprise. 'It assumes from those utterances that there will be no future extension of competition by Government Departments in trading, and that the operations of such trading departments as have been shown to compete unfairly with the legitimate business of subjects of the State will be curtailed and discontinued; also that where special control legislation and restrictive regulations exist which destroy initiative and repress enterprise in the professions, industries, and business concerns of the Dominion, without any compensating advantage to the community, but to its commercial disadvantage, these will be Repealed at an early date, and the conference assures the Government that it will give all assistance in preparing and forwarding information towards this end, if it is desired to do so." In conclusion Mr. Agar expressed a hope that Sir Joseph Ward's very long association' with business and his realisation'of the need and value of indivilual effort would ensure the country against the blighting influences of unnecessary State interference with private enterprise. , ENTERPRISE AND COURAGE. In the course of his reply to Mr. Agar.'s representations the Primo Minister, in addition to, endorsing the views expressed by the spokesman jof the deputation, referred .briefly to observations of his own on the subject. His personal feeling was, he said, that the Great War, and the" new and grave problems it brought in its train, were largely responsible for the strange and difficult conditions that were besetting some of the younger countries. He had been, comparatively lately, in the United States of , America and in Canada, and from personal investigation and inquiry in these countries he was driven to the conclusion that they were not suffering nearly so much from the aftermath .of the.war as were New Zealand, and, of course,, the Mother Country. In the other countries he had mentioned there had'been tremendous prosperity in^ their commercial life, and he was satisfied that New Zealand, whoever its rulers might be, would have to institute a policy of enterprise and courage before it would i definitely enjoy the measurcs-of commercial security and: "general- prosperity these other countries possessed. The Government might provide facilities towards this end, but the individual would have to turn them-to a&eount. Candour and harmony between Labour and Capital, the Minister went on to'say/were the prime factors towards a prosperous nation. Ho was satisfied that, many of the business people iii New Zealand, for quite a long time, had been suffering encroachments from one source or another which were not in the best interests of the community. The Mother Country had been suffering in the same way, as the result of the war conditions,, but the people there had begun to realise that .what may >be permissible, or even desirable, in circumstances of emergency, may be flagrantly undesirable when normal conditions were restored. He thought he might, without any impropriety, point to the incongruity of a man in business paying all the taxation that was going while sonic State Department close by in the same line of business paid neither income tax nor land tax, and traded on cheap State money. No one could make him believe that in any of the cities of New Zealand it was a fair thing for municipalities to compete against ratepayers in their own town when the municipalities paid no licence, no income tax, no land tax and no rates on the promises they occupied. Koturning to the subject in a later part of his speech, Sir Joseph said he hoped, with the assistance of his colleagues, the members of all sections of the House, and the fair-minded public, to reach a solution of the problem in the near future. LEGITIMATE PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. From all this it is obvious enough that Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues stand committed to legislation which will give to legitimate private enterprise protection from unfair State and municipal activities. A Bill towards this end was drafted during last year's session of Parliament, but Sir Joseph AVard's illness stayed its further progress. Presumably, a fully considered measure will be produced during the approaching session. Curiously enough a similar fate befell a Bill of the same character prepared by Mr. A. D. M'Lood during the session of 1928. Then the handy man of the Reform Government, Mr. M' Leod > had wrestled with the intricacies of his measure for weeks on end only to find, as members of the House were hurrying away to their electorates, that there was no place for it on the Order Paper. Sir Joseph Ward is not.likely to find his Bill delayed in this fashion or in any other fashion. He and his party stand committed, as Mr. Coates, his predecessor in office does, to an equitable adjustment of the relations between Stato and municipal enterprise and private enterprise. New Zealand lias loitered for too long in returning to pre-war conditions in this respect. England, Canada, the United States, and practically all Eastern European countries havo adjusted themselves to the conditions of a world at peace. New Zealand cannot afford to stand longer outside this progressive circle.