NO DOMINATION

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 12, 14 July 1945, Page 9

NO DOMINATION

DANGER OF POWER GROUPS

"If we are going to have the nationalisation of the means*of production, distribution, and exchange in this country, that will give a selected few unlimited power and unlimited privilege, and we do not want to see New Zealand dominated by a power group, whether it be by rich monopolists or by a small group, going under the name of the State," said Mr. J. Acland (National, Temuka) in the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon.

"If," he continued, "we don't want domination, we have got to remember the fact that power follows property, whether it is owned by the findiyidual or by the State. What we want is private property not banished but spread amongst all the people in this country." ■■■■■. Mr. T. H. McCombs (Government, Lyttelton): Give everyone an.opportunity. Mr. Acland: Everyone an opportunity to own a piece of land. • Mr. A. S. Richards , (Government, Roskill): Tell us how you are going to do it?

>• Mr. Acland said he would do that on another occasion. As long as property, . power, and capital were spread the individual would be safe from power groups and would enjoy the freedom for which the New Zealand Forces had fought. The members of the, Forces did not' want to be under people.' who were going to act like drill sergeants or a wet nurse. They had a right to liberty, property, and security. If everything was handed over to the State, to the whims of a few intellectuals or ambitious powerseekers, our men would be lost.