GRAVE MENACE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11951, 23 May 1933, Page 5

GRAVE MENACE

.STATE STRANGLING iPRiyATE ENTERPRISE :

balancing of industries URGED Y-'-

capital AND LABOR MUST SINK DIEEERENCES

Under the chairmanship of Rotarian j;' Hamilton Irvine, members of ‘the I gptary Club yesterday listened! to a | fctj' interesting address on economic I Auditions.- by Mr : J. * Pearce ■ LukeGyiCe- | president of the Assboidted'-'Chamhers 1 0 f Commerce. - -.-- • '• • 1 'Mr Luke said that dt seemed to | tim that most people. , had! for. some | years been Mo they Athenians in St. | 'Paul’s day ' looking for some new I thing. This.fact reminded him of’ a | jrin at Homo who- wanted to get a | oar. tAs ho did not wissfci to pay too | jnuch f° r tt, ho decided to whit' until I a friend needed .a larger car on ac- | ppant of his family becoming more numerous. Even though,, he waited for | 18' months, .the car still remained in good order, and ho had t 0 pay a good 1 figure. Upon receiving 'it,' he : spent every night and every Saturday afternoon taking it to pieces. When ho reassembled it, however/, he ’found itWho had some parts ever and in ty> end he had to take, it to a garage, where he found ', .that all his nvork had' been very . uneconomical, with the result: that .lie 'was put to additional -expense ameunthig -.tcP afc' out £SO. Alaybo most people in recentyears had thought that- they, could’.improve on their economic engine and had gone through the performance of taking it d'own and trying to. reassemble it, with the result that they too, had found a lob of parts over.-, To-day was a day of a whole lot of jnew <, isms” and “ologies” aimed at restoring the economic health of nations and of individuals, hut, to his (way of thinking, wo. wero drifting further from what was needed and the now era to which headway should be made was now afar off.

NEED EOR. RETURN TO OLD SUCCESSFUL METHODS

An analysis of the facts, Mr Luke I said, would show we should try to got I back to some of the old methods in ; 1 which event ho felt wo would again begin to progress:.- Ever since 1919 . ; the world as a whole had been econoV., mically sick. Perhaps more so in New I:' Zealand than elsewhere, we had forJ gotten that tho only people who could f . bring about prosperity in any counfi hf.y wore the people themselves. Tho |li only way to build a sound State- was on the basis of freedom;, initiative, :'j and energy. If everybody suddenly be- : came atrophied they would, of course, not. he able to function andl it would be easy to realise what- would happen to. the country. Yet tho trend of State activity for yfears past had been in the direction of crippling private 'enterprise. It- was a. most serious menace and tho result was that v,- e were heading more and' more to Complete State control of- all activit-ies-—ecoriomcal, industrial, and professional. He was not criticising the members of this Dominion’s very excellent. Civil Service, but- the fact- re--1 mained that- private enterprise was being atrophied. If this went on, assuredly the day might -come' when we would'have to admit that we had been adopting -Sovietism. He had In - ed abroad on the Continent and. in Britain and had 1 seen the conditions there, which would not- be put up with by British people. Particularly was that the case in. Eastern Europe. He had after the war seen a- groat deal of the difficult, conditions in ‘Poland brought, -about as a result- of the new rogimo in Russia for some -of the repercussions, of Sovietism had been foit there. If one had not seen, them, one could not imagine just- wnat such conditions'!-meant..; Lately . tho-Prince C-d Wales had. made an appeal for the Takffition of all slums in England. The Prince knew what a real danger they wero but- they were hot comparable with the slum conditions in'Poland. HOW BRITISH EMPIRE WAS built Where a State over-rode everybody, raid Mr Luke, conditions became intolerable and reduced everybody to a very unsatisfactory level. The British Empire had been built up very differently. It had been built up as a- -result of the initiative and energy of non and women who had something of tho spirit of one of his ancestors, Rob Roy. This fine town and district would not have developed if it had not been for Captain Cook who had displayed to the full tho- grand characteristics of his time. Capiasn Cook was characteristic of tho whole of tho British people of liis day. Wo had th-o same characteristics, but were not permitted by -the State to express them. Th-o tendency to-day was for overyono to he" p’npouraged to' \eap, on the State. If this state of things went on the next generation would do one or two things—either it would) becomo completely/ atrophied! or it would begin to kick mighty hard. Personally, he thought that the latter contingency would occur. Nat-ur-many people realised that to go on as wo wiere going would amount to economic suicide. Wo required to g e t to the rootdeause of all sr°P^-5 r °P^-. 54.; s 4 .; and more particularly the question o> inflated values. Some 35- to 40 ago thie IGovommerit of the day cidod that remuneration ?Lould regulated, but the figure fixed 1 rom time to time had never had any re a tion to the economic value of -pro tic tion. He had made that statement •before -and it had! been challenged, Ut he still held that it was mcontostable. What had b'oen wrong was that wages had been fixed on the- basis of the social aspect, leaving ou the economic aspect. Part o G scheme was that skilled workmen were to: get protection against the unskUi ed. One group of workers’ anions had, gained-advantages under -th? Act and . then another ' had aimed' at something higher and on. As 'the result the workers had drawn out of industry something not thebe to-give them with the inevitable result that the woe __ dustry had! been killed as dead as th dodo and it would now require to b , /■fesuscit^te-d-

Farming vital, but not everything

~ said Mr Luke, ho had .. . B in g, secondary industry, "pngin9®r)ng, all hia life, but lie gave 'way l/o no one iff stating chat’ the most , sfecfcion ■ in. industry was farming. No ebunry could be developiif Had' v av sound farming in-' bub" this country couldl not be on 1 that industry alone. It pa His. option that the great demands winch bad- heeii madd oh the State Advances Department under • branch; were: a direct result of the of the I.G. Arbitramen, : systeffil. As it so. liaptoo, the education, system had been 'sxich as. to discourage young people going on'the land. To-day, ovoiry asset had! to ho written down / inmany former assets "had becomo liabilities. We had to face the' 'position and learn to' find sufficient ' money from oitr own production to pay for public works and other advantagesNo; other place with' the same population and o|‘ similar age hack’the iamenities iwhich New Zealand enjoyed. An American who recently visited this Dominion had told him that Napier, Hastings and! Gisborne had amenities which wero not possessed by cities -in tket United States with three or four times as largo a population . There was certainly no. town itx Britain -as •well"off. We could,hot sidestep what now required -to bo done. He was not speaking, against farming—.far from it—but -Netv Zealand could not develop unless the whole- of her industries were,balanced.. To-day all classes wbre being dragged down by the millstones of high- wages ‘which were hot linked up with- economic values.

A NOTE OF OPTIMISAt

In moving a very hearty vote of thanks t-o the speaker, which was carried with acclamation, Botarian F. R. Ball said that Air Luke had certainly given- those present much food for deep thought. He did not agree with him, however, that the outlook was as black as ho had painted it. In spite or the bad times we were passing through he (Rotarian Ball) believed that tlioro was a much brighter outlook and that it was not far distant. One effect, of the economic crisis would be. that Capital and Labor would be drawn together in bonds of a better understanding. To-day there was a spirit of compromise abroad and ho was confident that improved conditions for this Dominion were ahead. It iwould ho necessary for all to profit from mistakes in the past. If this were done there- would be better regulation of the economic, life of the country. Acknowledging the vote of thanks, Mr Luke said (that he could not admit t-hart- he was a pessimist, for ho believed! that this Dominion would get out of its- difficulties. They only required to get Capital and Labor to come to a. realisation of what industry meant to one another and to sink their differences.