LICENSED INDUSTRIES

Evening Star, Issue 23717, 26 October 1940, Page 6

LICENSED INDUSTRIES

CIHIRDINATIDN OF ADMINISTRATION PROCEDURE [Per United Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, October 25. Referring to the Licensed Industrie* General Regulations which came into force yesterday, the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Sullivan), interviewed to-day, said that these regulations did not represent any departure from the existing policy or administration, excepting that the regulations would co-ordinate the existing procedure in relation to the administration of licensed industries, particularly in relation to the development of industrial plans. Previously i Mr Sullivan said, it had been the custom to develop detailed machinery provisions for each industry and to incorporate the _ specific procedure and practices which that industry would adopt for its own purpose. This bad to be worked *out in detail by officers of the Department of Industries and Commerce in advance of the appointment of an industrial committee in consultation from time to time with representatives of the industries concerned. Within the regulations now published the necessary* machinery was provided for the administration of all industrial plans. Thus not only would the procedure ha much more simple, but it would also be uniform.

In these regulations, however, there would be no detailed or specific provisions relating to practices or methods, the Minister continued. Instead, they embodied wide empowering provisions which could be adopted by the issuance of special regulations that would' relate them to any particular industry. The industry concerned would then, consider the adoption- of these special regulations as a general empowering industrial plan,' . and if they were adopted by a Vote of the majority of the members in the industry an industrial committee would then be appointed. The committee would carry out the development of the plan in more specific detail in accordance with, the special needs of the industry concerned, subject, of course, to the overriding consideration of the preservation of the public interest and the spirit and intention of the Industrial Efficiency Act. The Minister said he felt that the empowering provisions thus available to the industries brought under the provisions of the Act offered great scope and possibilities for. the more effective organisation of those industries by their own representatives. For instance, there were many things that an industry could do with the aid of its collective resources that could not be done by any one unit within the industry. He illustrated this by referring to research, experimentation, standards agreeing on a. certain measure of specialisation Within an industry, and the employment of specialists or experts in an advisory capacity. This indicated but, a few of Jhe possibilities that the regulations opened up to the industries which sought • their assistance as a basis for orderly sellfovernment, and he felt that the benot both to the industries concerned and to the welfare of the Dominion aa a whole would be in proportion to the degree that the new regulations wer« used. . . . ....

“ At the present time,” the Minister concluded, “ there are a number of licensed industries waiting to proceed immediately with industrial plans for their 'respective industries, and as a result of the publication of the general regulations I am hopeful that plans for several important industries will be adopted very shortly. In these days, when there is the utmost need for the maximum efficiency and co-ordination of industry throughout the Dominion, planning on a nation-wide basis under the direction of a self-governing industrial committee with _ statutory powers seems to offer a particularly attractive opportunity to industrialists.”