New Zealand “Case Study” In Social Reform

Grey River Argus, 2 May 1947, Page 8

New Zealand “Case Study” In Social Reform

WELLINGTON, May 1. The New Zealand “New Deal” had teen more thorough than the American because of an historical background of Socialism without doctrine and the many years during which the Labour Party had prepared for a programme of social reform. This was what Dean E. McHenry, associate professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles l stated. He has spent seven months in New Zealand studying the measures brought in by the Labour Government since 1935. A foundation has given him a grant to make this study and his conclusions will later appear in book form. New Zealand, he said, offers the example of a social democratic party that has been in power for some time and is being used as a case study in social and economic planning. While the six war years might present difficulties in evaluation of achievements, they also provided a testing of policies and programmes, said Dean McHenry. The thoroughness of New Zealand’s “New Deal” Dean McHenry attributed to the fact that New Zealand and Australia had never been afraid of State intervention to help their citizens. Added to this was the long period in which the Labour Party had prepared a clear-cut policy for social reform when it finally came to power. “In America,” he said, “the Democrats, working under the pressure of events produced the New Deal without a great deal of forethought. It was not the result of careful preparation by thinking- through problems of reform.” “The political wind is right against State enterprises in America,” he said in answer to a question. The field in which he expected the greatest advance in socialisation was in co-operatively and municipally-run enterprises. “If this can be done on the Swedish model,” he said, “ it would be described as Socialism without nationalisation. There the enterprises are democratically controlled and kept very close to the people. “They have been the greatest enemies of monopolies.” Sweden, he said, was a useful model of a social-democratic country. “If I were a Labour Party leader in New Zealand I- would feel like sending observers there,” he said. The health services of the social security system in New Zealand were among the country’s most impressive achievements. In collaboration with New Zealand medical journals in the United States series of articles on this subject for medical pournals in the United States and Britain.

“It is too soon from my point of view to draw conclusions because / am still collecting material,” he said. “Nevertheless, your country is being watched with great interest.”