Manawatu Daily Times The State in Business

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6901, 6 May 1929, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times The State in Business

QPEAKING at the annual meeting of the Wellington branch of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand at Victoria College, Professor B. E. Murphy compressed into a single paragraph the conditions that should be observed when the State entered upon competitive business. ‘State industries, he said, “should cover costs in the full sense. These costs are. (a), operating expenses; (b), interest on capital; (c), repairs and maintenance; (d), reserve to cover fluctuations; (e), reserve equivalent to their proportion of rates and taxes; (f), provision for extension of service; (g), provision for value of services furnished free or under cost by other departments of State; (h), an allowance for the damage they inflict on private industry; (1), provision for the privileged position in competition of a State undertaking; e.g., exemption from Labour laws, privileges in collecting accounts, privileged position in litigation.”

These are the points lor which the hotly known as the Nineteen Twenty-Eight Committee has been contending and given the imprimatur of a recognised professor of economics they cannot be ignored by the reading and observing section of the community.

It will bp only fair to mention that the audience addicsscd by Professor Murphy was not unanimous in endorsing his views. Mr. C. M. Banks, one of Wellington’s leading business men, thought the State was interfering far too much with busines. Commercial men, he said, were so hedged round by regulations that they did not know which way to turn. Personally, lie would welcome Socialism, as its advent would moan that he would not have to work nearly so hard as he had to do under existing conditions.

The majority of the other speakers took a different view, Mr. M. J. Forde thought the professor was an old-fashioned eco

nornist out of date with the trend of the times. Mr. Malcolm Fraser, as in duty bound, said he did not think the State in New Zealand had entered into many industrial enterprises. The professor’s charges of wholesale political interference in Govern-

ment enterprises had not been borne out by proofs. And so on and so on until a vote of thanks to the professor for his “informative lecture” brought the proceedings to a conclusion.

Tlic monthly meeting of the District Nursing Guild will bo held at -.JO this afternoon in the Council Chambers.

“We do not need to go abroad to obtain good foundation stock; we have it in New Zealand already," said -Mr. 0. P. Lynch, president of the executive of the Mauawatu branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, which was held in Palmerston North on Saturday.

“The Midnight Frolics" Company completed their Palmerston North season on Saturday night before a record house. Once again Mr. Clem Dawp and his band of versatile artists were excellent enterainment and more than a cure for the “blues." Variety was the keynote of the programme, which never lagged from curtain to curtain. Mr. Dawe and his jolly band will be assured of a warm welcome when they return to Palmerston North.

The Aberdeen Commonwealth line announces a substantial reduction iu fares between Melbourne and Colombo iu the spring and summer months. From January to July 31, the fare will bo reduced to £3l return.

Tho New Zealand Hockey Association’s invitation to the Australian Hockey Association to send a good representative team to the Dominion has been accepted. The team will consist of 10 players, who will leave Sydney probably in July, states a Sydney cable.

“I wisli the Dominion secretary could provide us with some way of getting fanners along to meetings. Short of a strike, old ifarrv himself won’t make them stir," said a delegate at the annual meeting of tho executive of the Manawatu branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union held in Palmerston North on Saturday.