WITH EDGED TOOLS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 76, 26 September 1941, Page 4

WITH EDGED TOOLS

We can agree with most of what has been said about the introduction of standards, and their value to industry and the consuming public. At the same time there is reason for uneasiness in the wide powers vested in the Minister. Compulsion for the introduction of standards is retained in the Bill, despite the strong arguments submitted in favour of voluntary operation until the need for compulsion in specific instances should be made clear. The Minister of Industries and Commerce bound himself to accept nominations from representative bodies for membership of the Standards Council unless some real justification for rejecting the nominations existed, but we cannot see why this limitation of power should not have been embodied in the Bill. No limitation was made as to the exercise of the

compulsory powers. Government speakers quoted precedents for taking power to compel, and the Minister said some manufacturers would be glad to have compulsory standards for the elimination of shoddy work by unfair competitors. This may be so. In spite of what has happened in recent years, there are men who accept the application of compulsion !as a short cut, rather than taking the ilonger but better way of eliminating shoddy goods by educating the public to know the value of sound wares. Such men fail to realise the danger of playing with edged tools. The Labour Government of New Zealand has a socialising objective, and compulsory powers in the hands of a Government with such an objective are different from similar powers in the hands of a Government that has faith in private enterprise and wishes to retain it. Experience has shown this. The socialising Government intervenes in industry eagerly, because it believes in State intervention and ~ regulation. The non-socialising , Government intervenes only to prevent abuse of private freedom, not to destroy that freedom. New powers taken by a socialising Government may not be! used at once, but while the objective remains unchanged, the existence of those powers m^st be disquieting.