State Intervention

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7037, 22 December 1932, Page 7

State Intervention

Not Appreciated in Business INDIVIDUAL ENTERPRISE THE MAINSPRING OF PROSPERITY Per press Association. WELLINGTON, Dec. 21. Mr Burgess, chairman of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, in a statement to-day, said: “Tho fact is faced that more harm than good is being done by legislation interposing the State in private contracts. However pressing the situation and however great tho justification which the legislators of the country have considered to be theirs in making those laws, it should be clearly indicated that they are of a purely temporary nature, and should be cancelled at the earliest possible opportunity.’’ Further, Mr Burgess said the legislation, while of some immediate benefit to certain farmers, destroyed the confidence of investors in mortgages and made it harder than ever for members of the farming community as a whole to arrange finance for carrying on. This must necessarily follow interference with inevitable economic processes. “It is evident,” Mr Burgess added, “that the general public is looking to the Parliamentary machine to legislate us into better times. I wish to stress, on behalf of my association, that this is altogether wrong. New' statutes for such a purpose are of no use, because if those statutes interfere further with natural economic processes they are not merely useless, 'but definitely injurious. The most that the commercial community hopes for, and the most constructive proposal that it can urge for the purpose of economic reconstruction, is that Parliament cease to interfere with trade, industry and commerce. The business world is endeavouring to carry on not with the help of what Parliament does, but in spito of what Parliament does. The powers of Parliament have been widely used beyond their proper sphere, and it is time that the country realised that individual endeavour is the mainspring of trade prosperity.

“We are confronted with circumstances which can be surmounted only by a determined process of individual adjustment, to conform to reduced national and private income—an adjustment tlmt is still going on quietly and unobtrusively in private business. This remedy may bo unnattractive—even painful—but it is the only remedy. “There are two things that Parliament can do: Stop borrowing and reduce expenditure. There are many recommendations made by the National Expenditure Commission which have not yet been adopted. Beyond that, tho country needs a legislative holiday, in order that we may be enabled U get on with the job.”