MANA INCREASED

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 91, 14 October 1931, Page 14

MANA INCREASED

CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE

WORK OF ASSOCIATION

The annual conference of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand is to be hold in the City Council Chamber on tho. 22nd and 23rd of this month. The delegates will be welcomed by the Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, at 9.30 a.m., and the opening ceremony will be performed by His Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe. The report of the executive states that the system of working through the association has perceptibly increased the mana of the Chambcr/ot Cammoic,o movement in New Zealand. lhc asso ciation, acting as the voice of the commercial community had steadily won prestige- with the Government, parties of the House, local and national bodxes and organisations, and the general public. . ■. "The association has come to oe recognised as a New Zealand-wide organisation, particularly fitted to scrutinise and advise on matters ol national importance from a detached and thoroughly non-party standpoint, continues the report. "Party politics have had no place in the deliberations and decisions of the association. The conclusions arrived at are the conclusions of qualified, practical business men, whose collective versatility .in business experience enables them to approach the various problems of the Dominion with understanding and even familiarity, and to advise on them accordingly. Parliamentary Bills, by whomever presented, are supported or opposed only from the viewpoint of the community welfare and the interests of trade and commerce. Business principles are enunciated for application to the affairs of the country. Parochial interests are not allowed to overshadow the national, welf • re. Unremitting efforts have been made, to combat unfair State and public body competition with private enterprise, and the growth of bureaucratic regulations and interference with legitimate business by State Departments; to secure the repeal of special legislation which curtails and. interferes with legitimate private trading; to, have statutes revfsed which are not in the best interests of trade, .commerce, and the general community, and to have enacted legislation for their protection and advancement." The .activities of the Associated Chambers of Commerce during the past year'arc outlined. Referring to trade with the East, it is said that the executive had kept in. touch with the Minister of Industries and Commerce .in , connection ' with this matter, and Cabinet confirmed a proposal that a trade investigator should proceed to the Dutch East Indies with the object of-promoting the trade of the Dominion with that teritory. As a result, Mr. L. J. Schmitt, New Zealand Trade Commissioner at Sydney visited Sumatra, Singapore, and other places. He had since reported that there were good prospects of. general trade between New Zealand and the East; that one influential New Zealand firm had been placed in touch with a lai'ge importing house in the East, and sales had already taken place. It was hoped that the information gathered, by tho trade representative would assist toward the establishment of direct shipping services, which were essential to the ae'velopment of the trade. It was gratifying to know that tho Chambers of Commerce were to have representatiyes on the Industries Board. A statement as to the work of the Wellington members of tho executive is included in the report.