NEW REGULATIONS CONDEMNED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 5 December 1940, Page 7

NEW REGULATIONS CONDEMNED

LICENSED INDUSTRIES ALLEGED STEP TOWARDS SOCIALISATION Strong criticism of the Licensed Industries Regulations, which he describes as “the greatest single step toward socialisation of private property in business which he has found in the laws of any country excepting Russia,” is expressed in a statement by the immediate past president of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation, Mr W. Machin. “The Licensed Industries Regulations, 1940 have now been issued by Orders-in-Council No. 279,” he states. "I regard them as the most flagrant piece of what Lord He wart in his book, ‘The New Despotism,’ calls ‘Administrative lawlessness’ we have yet seen in New Zealand. They are J obviously not a war measure, as the ! Industrial Efficiency Act was passed j in 1936. and these are its working i regulations. NO APPEAL BEYOND MINISTER “This act gives the Minister for Industries and Commerce (on the advice of the Bureau of Industry) power to declare any industry or business in New Zealand shall, from a specified date, be carried on only under a license from the department; and the sole court of appeal is the Minister himself, and his decisions are final. “The new regulations shall apply to any industry (including any trade, occupation, or service of any kind, manufacturing, distributing, wholesale or retail) which may be publicly notified hereafter by the bureau, so that any morning the owners of any business in New Zealand may wake up to find that they cannot legally continue their business unless each has a license from the bureau; which license may bo revoked by the bureau at any time at six months’ notice, if the bureau thinks the (stringent) conditions of the license are not being met, or if in the opinion of the bureau the business is not achieving economic production, or is not able to produce goods of suitable quality, or is unable to meet changing needs of markets. IMPLICATIONS OF LICENSE “Each license shall ‘imply’ the following conditions:— “The business shall not be carried on at any other address than that stated. “The price at which the business may be sold is governed by the bureau; this also applies to its products. “The licensee must comply with the future requirements of the bureau as to specifications, methods and processes. He must keep his premises, plant and production, and his service' to his customers up to the require-! ments of the bureau. “He may not sell supplies, or with- ( hold supplies, or make supplies of j goods against the opinion of the j bureau, nor impose business terms and j conditions which, in the opinion of the j bureau, ought not to have been im-' posed. “He must keep his accounts and records to the satisfaction of, and in such form and detail as the bureau requires, and supply the balance-sheets, profits and loss accounts and trading accounts, and such other returns, statistics, and information relating to the business as the bureau may reasonably require. ‘‘His prices are to be controlled, also any additions to his land, buildings, or plant. He may not increase his output or productive capacity; he shall not purchase goods or raw materials for use by him in the said industry except from sources of supply specified in the license. “Nor may he sell through any other agents or by any other methods than those specified in the license. “He must sell to those purchasers specified in the license; and keep the bureau supplied with specimens of all goods manufactured or sold for testing purposes, and he must obtain special permission before selling any second quality or inferior goods. “MASTERPIECE OF INQUISITION” “There are many other restrictions referring to share capital, the personal qualifications of owners to engage in their industry either in technical or financial resources, etc., etc. “For bearing all these letters, he must pay ‘an annual license fee of £l, and an annual levy of 1-8 of 1 per cent, of his sales turnover,’ and he must pay these both within one month of the first issue of the license; therefore presumably on the turnover of the year before he was licensed. “The statement which must accompany the application for a license is a masterpiece of departmental inquisition for finding out every technical, trade, and financial secret in a business. “These regulations are the greatest single step towards socialisation of private property in business which I have read in the laws of any country excepting Russia. “They are only, of course, the practical application of the idealism of the Socialist Party, but to make them the law of the land by Order-in-Council while Parliament was in recess, especially in a period of nominal political truce, while war engages everyone, seems outrageous. “WHAT IS THIS LIBERTY?” “Fortunately the last clause of the original act requires all regulations made under it to be laid before both Houses of Parliament within 14 days after the commencement of the next session, so within the next 10 days there should be an explosion. “I write to suggest that every businessman, and everyone who expects to retain the right to be free to engage in the normal business of the Dominion in future, should get a copy of these regulations and study them, and consider their probable results to the

prosperity of this Dominion and the individual liberty of its nationals. “If this does not give such a shock to the whole commercial community of New Zealand—big and little—as to make them turn on bureaucracy and sternly say. ‘Stop this fooling,’ I shall begin to wonder what is this liberty which we profess to regard so highly, and which some cherish so carelessly.”