LABOUR POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 151, 29 June 1938, Page 14

LABOUR POLICY

EFFECT ON BUSINESS

A LUNCHEON ADDRESS

The second of a series of luncheons arranged by the Wellington division of the New Zealand National Party to give the younger business men of the community the opportunity of hearing some of the National Party speakers was held today, when the speaker was Mr. W. L. Barker, National candidate for the Wellington East seat. Mr. O. C. Mazengarb, who presided, said that the National Party was endeav.ouring to have the issue involved in the General Election placed fairly and squarely before the younger people so that they might be under no disillusionment. Taking as his subject some of the effects of Government policy in business, Mr. Barker said that business was something that was human flesh and blood. Without business there could be no State, and the State depended essentially for its existence, development, and progress on business. Unless business tended to thrive and ex-' pand the country could not progress itself. Business was founded on something very human. The element on which it was founded was confidence, the psychological factor. If that confidence did not exist a country would go backwards. Unquestionably the Labour Government had done everything it possibly could, hardly consciopsly, perhaps mostly unconsciously, to undermine the foundations of business.

The National Party believed that the democratic foundation, the economic foundation, gave to the people their political democracy. The Socialist Party preached' political democracy founded on a Socialist State. The Socialist Party's philosophy was that a group of individuals selected by the people, paid by the people, and who were the servants of the people, were more capable of managing the affairs of the people than the people themselves. Mr. Barker said he contended that the people of the country were far more capable of managing their own affairs than any group of politicians. Prosperity sprang from the people and the businesses of the people; it did not spring from the Government.

If a government tended to interfere in business or encroach upon the affairs of the business of the people, then that Government was progressively tending to undermine the psychological foundation of business. That was what was happening in New Zealand today. The Labour Government was working on a completely false philosophy. There was no question whatever but that it was working towards a totalitarian or absolute State of some kind or other.

SUCCESS OF OTHER COUNTRIES.

Mr. Barker submitted that the success achieved in other countries since the depression proved that it was possible to enjoy marked prosperity without the State interfering unduly. The people of New Zealand were not as prosperous as they would have been had the powers of the State been restricted. If shackles were placed on industry they were placed on the lifeblood of the country and the penalty must be paid. The policy of high costs had so increased internally that already in Wellington alone there were to be found examples of businesses flooded out by imports.

Mr. Barker said his only regret was that the Labour Government's term was not for four years, because, he declared, before that time the Government would have to face the full effects of its own policy and would have to resign from office. Unless the Labour Government was removed from office the country was going $9 have to face a very serious crisis, except in the event of a change from its avowed policy and then on principle the Government would be forced to resign. Mr. Barker was thanked for his address.