PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 72, 22 September 1943, Page 7

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

THE LABOUR ALTERNATIVE

The Nationalist policy for private enterprise was described as one marked difference between the programme of that party and the Labour platform by Mr. C. H; Chapman (.Labour, Wellington North), speaking to an enthusiastic audience at St. Peter's Hall, Ghuznee Street, last evening. Competitive private .enterprise, said Mr. Chapman, was a nice-sounding slogan to the unthinking, to those who thought that their own ability was such that, if given complete freedom from restrictions, they would rise to the top of the tree, Traders would then be free to sell adulterated products to the consumer as the genuine article. The restrictions imposed by the Labour Government were mild indeed, and in time of war they had all been placed on the Statute Book or in the regulations for the safety of the public.

The Labour Party and Government placed against that slogan of competitive private enterprise co-operative productive enterprise. They were prepared to stand by that slogan, and were confirmed in their opinion that it was,much to be preferred, leading to much greater happiness and much greater prosperity. It produced better results in all ways than competitive private enterprise, which led to high prices. Without the restrictions imposed by the Labour Party the wartime cost of living in New Zealand would be three, four, or five times what it was now. In Wellington North many people were living in flats and rpoms and paying high rents, and if private enterprise had full sway the rents would be higher still. All the benefit of rent restriction would be lost and the people would be left at the mercy of the unscrupulous, who would take full advantage of the scarcity of houses and rooms which characterised Wellington. There would be periods of booms followed by depressions. Those were the inevitable results of unrestricted private competitive enterprise, and that was what Mr. Holland, as leader of the National Party, put before electors as something worthy of support. If the people of Wellington North wanted that sort of thing and were willing to take those risks they would have only themseleys to blame. They had had that experience in the past, and they were not likely to risk another dose of the four years from 1931 to 1935.