Industry Shackled By State

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 265, 7 November 1941, Page 4

Industry Shackled By State

Production Falling; Few New Businesses .ALARM EXPRESSED BY INDUSTRIAL LEADERS Per Press Association. INVERCARGILL, Nov. 6. A remit expressing 4 4 grave concern at the extent to which industry and commerce are being progressively fettered by State regulations and control” was Carried at the annual conference ot the Associated Chambers of Commerce to-day. Mr. N. B. Spencer (Auckland) said the control of industry by the State had reached a pitch which would have been undreamt of a few years ago. Industry was being shackled te such an extent by al{ this control that they found few new industries starting and production was going down. Practically every phase of business from the purchase of raw materials to the price at which finished goods could be sold were controlled by regulations. The past four or five years had seen industry and all sorts of business more and more fettered and controlled. Many of the regulations were those imposed by the Government to carry out its pledge to socialise industry in New Zealand. They were regulated from top to bottom and the position would become worse unless something were done. Mr. L. A. Eady (Auckland) said that every sphere of industry was now being controlled and urgent representations should be made to the Government to call a halt to this policy of State control. This bureaucratic control was a menace to the small businessman. Mr. R. H. Nimnio (Wellington) con gratulated the Auckland delegates on the way they had put their vase. Marketing control instead of reducing prices and promoting efficiency caused inefficiency and higher prices, he said. Mr. W. S. Mac Gibbon (Canterbury) said that out of 400,000 workers *n New Zealand 153,000 were employed by the State and this in his opinion was an appalling position. Dissatisfaction With Industrial Efficiency Act A remit asking the Government to amend the Industrial Efficiency Act was carried after an amendment urging the abolition of the Act had been defeated. In support of the remit Mr. R. H. Ninmio (Wellington) said that as the constitution of the bureau made insufficient provision for the representation of the interests of the producer and manufacturer or of any other class of the community likely to be adversely 'affected by the operations of the Act it was inherently unbalanced, unsound and unjust. Mr. A. L. Wall (Wellington) said there was a great deal of discontent in Wellington over the Act. Members of the Wellington Chamber would like to see the Act abolished. “I can assure you that not the slightest pressure has ever been brought by myself or by the Government on any industry to reg ; jer under the Act,” said the Minister of Industries and Commerce in an address later, “It is easier to get out from under the Act than to get under the Act. There have been about 60 applications for registration under the Act and only about half have been accepted. A few industries have been delicensed because they were not prepared to agree to a plan under which employers and employees and the community as a whole benefit from the operations of the industry.” Planning for Post-War Problems. The need to plan and prepare extensively for changed world conditions after the war was emphasised by Duuedin and Auckland speakers when the following remit came up for discussion: ‘‘That this conference requests the Government to appoint an expert commission to consider and report on post war rehabilitation.” The remit was passed. In moving the remit Mr. R. C. Burgess (Dunedin) said the proposal for a broad enquiry into rehabilitation problems was in no way contradictory to the Rehabilitation Act already passed by Parliament. There was a pressing need for an enquiry by a body free from sectional interests and party politics. It should not be allowed to become the plaything of politics. The stabilisation of prices of primary products relative to the prices of other commodities and internal costs, improvement in the management of the country’s monetary system, the problems presented by the low birth rate and the necessity for restoring the family to its paramount place in society, tariffs and exchange control, were all matters which required the urgent attention of impartial investigators.

The importance of planning for changed world conditions after the war was also stressed by Mr. L. A. Eady (Auckland) in a second remit. The Rehabilitation Act recently passed by the Government dealt with the actual rehabilitation aspect only, he said. The Atlantic Charter compiled by Mr. Churchill and President Roosevelt indicated clearly that after victory had been achieved the existing overseas trade relations of New Zealand and of every Empire country would undergo a drastic change. Mr. Eady added that in the Auckland Chamber a post-war reconstruction study group w r as actively functioning with the idea that Auckland might bo able to make some constructive contribution to the solution of what was an exceedingly complex problem.