The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1934. MR COATES’S MISSION.

Evening Star, Issue 21881, 19 November 1934, Page 8

The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1934. MR COATES’S MISSION.

Mr Wilkinson, M.P., went back to ins constituency after the parliamentary session and declared that our present form of government is a dictatorship. It is largely a matter of definition. The Government has taken on itself a process which it calls “ economic adjustment ” largely because circumstances practically forced that upon it. • A good deal of interference in business was inevitable, and undoubtedly Ministerial advice from permanent officials tends to the establishment or extension of bureaucracy. But this is so far a long way from being a dictatorship. And it must not be forgotten that at various times various 'sections of producers and traders have specifically asked for such intervention. ' Before Mr Coates left New Zealand on his trade reciprocity mission tp Australia he addressed the Manufacturers’ Federation in Wellington. fie disavowed the Government’s desire to extend its activities in this direction. No doubt after the strain of a long session during which practically all the onerous work fell on his shoulders as Minister of Finance his reaction would be that of a tired man who would gratefully welcome a limitation of Government activity in many spheres. But the demand from the public seems to preclude this. In many cases,” said Mr Coates, “ the industry itself frantically calls to the Government for help, and is thankful when any assistance is forthcoming. For instance, last year, when the Government announced that it would accept the responsibility for doing something to rehabilitate the dairy industry, there was a sigh of relief. But this year, after a Royal Commission had reported on ,the subject and the Government proposed taking the necessary legislative action, there was a public outcry that the Government was interfering again. The public’s memory is short.” The Minister acknowledged a perceptible change of attitude among organisations of business men such as the one he was then addressing. When circumstances impelled the Government to action there used to be a traditional protest, perhaps a tendency to passive resistance, but quite recently a past president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce disagreed with that attitude and advised a° policy which would recognise the change that has come over politics and the extension of the field which it

seems now fated that Government must enter.

Such is the nature of the task on which Mr Coates will be engaged in Australia. Perhaps much more important than trans-Tasman trade (in which oranges and potatoes bulk largest in popular conception) is the matter of joint action with Australia in the regulation of some of our staple exports to Britain. Such defensive action has been none of the Government's seeking; it has been impelled by the British Government, which has invaded the realms of production and distribution on a scale which at no very remote time would have been thought unbelievable in conservative England. * The Times ’ does not expect Mr Coates’s task to be an easy one. Both Australia and New Zealand are in tho same boat in respect of their common market overseas, but that is no guarantee that their respective Governments will agree on a common policy and harmoniously carry it out. There can be no doubt of Australia's concern in the matter. At the same time there can be no doubt about Australia’s resolve to stick to her Protectionist policy, even though it may prejudice her export trade. Australian publicists speak of 1933-34 as a year of paramount importance, and admit that the country’s progress to recovery depends mainly on developments overseas. The question to which she is seeking a reply is: Are the most striking changes produced by depression economy to become stabilised and form a permanent feature in world economy ? If so, then the purchasing power of practically all sections of the community must undergo a serious reduction, and—most important to Governments—the field for taxation becomes narrowed and a long struggle agaiust national bankruptcy becomes discernible as what the future holds.