GOVERNMENT METHODS OF BUSINESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12697, 27 October 1904, Page 4

GOVERNMENT METHODS OF BUSINESS.

The revelations made in the House yesterday concerning the methods adopted by the Government in the disposal of timber on Crown lands will be read with feelings of astonishment. The Minister for Lands, in reply to questions, made the extraordinary admission that standing timber had been sold to an Auckland company below the price tendered by another company. He justified this novel method of doing business on the grounds that the price accepted was a fair market price, and that to have accepted the other tender would have been to assist in creating , a monopoly. The arguments of the Minister, however, will not bear examination. The course adopted was, we believe, unusual, and is certainly open to grave objection. Although, there is no reason whatever to believe that .in this particular transaction there was any improper motive behind it, it is easily conceivable that if such a power is to be left in the hands of a Minister its use' may readily degenerate into very questionable practices. We hold that it is absolutely wrong for a Minister to be able to dispose of the assets of the State for less than is bid in open competition. Not only is it opposed to the accepted canons of sound business, but it exposes him to suspicions of favouritism which, in the interests of pure administration, is a matter ...that is to be strongly deprecated. We have no sympathy with monopolies, but there is a right and a wrong way of dealing with them. Mr. Duncan's way is the wrong way, and opens the door to abuses infinitely greater and graver than the evil he professes he was anxious to guard against.