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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 26 June 1945, Page 4

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HINT TO INDUSTRY SOG'IAI.IS VflON AND QUESTION N A IRES Wellington, This Day. Recent statements made by Mr. F. Langstone, M.P., and other Government spokesmen on the socialisation of industry, combined with the current gathering of information from manufacturers through questionnaires circulated by the Organisation of National Development, were seen as “the threatened extension to industry of the present bank socialisation cult” by this week’s meeting of the Wellington Manufacturers’ Association Council. The meeting asked the N.Z. Manufacturers’ Federation to “advise its members to defer completion of the questionnaires until such time as the Government makes an unequivocal statement that it will not interfere with the private ownership of industry.” Exercised by the utterances of Mr. Langstone at Christchurch recently, the meeting also considered remarks attributed to him by the “Standard” of May 3, 1945, as being made at a recent open forum of the Mt. Eden— Mt Roskill Combined Committee of the Labour Party. The Council regarded as “particularly significant in view of the current request for data on industry,” a section of the “Standard” report saying: “The speaker declared that it was not possible for private enterprise and State Departments to work together, as on the one hand private enterprise existed for the making of profits, while the State Departments’ business was utility and progress for the community as a whole.” The Council felt that the present survey might be “the veiled forerunner to implementation of the Government’s ambitions as evidenced by Mr. Langstone.”

Speakers also referred to earlier statements, especially one made by the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser in the Land and Income Tax (Annual) Bill debate last year that heavy taxation on industry would continue, and that the question of advancing money to industries if necessary, or subsidising some of them, would have to be considered.

In the light of recent events and statements of intention, the meeting felt that it would be “imprudent folly” to continue supplying Government agencies with intimate details of manufacturing industries until a clear denial was made of the strong inference of approaching industrial socialisation.