STATE INTERFERENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20259, 20 May 1929, Page 13

STATE INTERFERENCE.

THE HIGH COMMISSIONER. COMPETITION WITH TRADERS. A communication from the 1928 Committeo remarks that, in discussing the question of State interference with private enterprise, it should be born-3 in mind that no particular Government is specially responsible for the growth of this evil. The Government's first entrance upon business, in a more intimate sense than was the case in the institution of post and telegraph and railway services, was the establishment of the State Life 'lnsurance Office in 1869. This was followed by the Public Trust Office in 1872 and the State Fire Insurance Office in 1903. Sir William Fox was Premier in. 1869 and 1872 and the Right Hon. 11. J. Seddon was Prime Minister in 1903. Within the bounds o! their original charters : however, the Public Trust Office and the Insurance Offices have been accepted by the public and the encroachments of the former need not be discussed just now. For the present it must suffice to in dicate one or two directions in which State interference with private enterprise operates unfairly. The Dominion is represented in London by a High Commissioner, whose business it is to look after the affairs of this country at the heart of the Empire and to promote its trade and commerce by every legitimate means. Naturally the Government and the local bodies, knowing that this gentleman has special facilities for buying and shipping, take advantage of his services whenever possible. The High Commissioner is in a much better position to drive a hard bargain than any private buyer or shipper could hope to be. It is not suggested that in doing this the Government's representative is guilty of any impropriety. He simply is attending to his job But whether or not it is quite fair that the High Commissioner, whose services and establishment are charges upon the New' Zealand taxpayers, should be employed in buying and shipping for State departments and local bodies is another question. The private importers in New Zealand have to pay rates, taxes and numerous overhead charges at this end, in addition to commission, freight and further overhead * charges at the other, while the State is exempt from, rates and taxes and enjoys many advantages in which the private importer cannot participate. Do whatever he may, he cannot escape from customs duties, wharfage and other charges from which the State is freed.

The High Commissioner is so much master of the situation that he has given notice to the suppliers at Home that unless they place the New Zealand Government on the footing of the most favoured wholesale purchasers he will not deal with them a second time.

The agency activities of the High Commissioner in London are not, of course, the most flagrant examples of the Government's intrusion upon private enterprise; but they go some way toward being the most insidious. Though the New Zealand taxpayers ultimately pay for the commissioner's excursions into business, there are not a great many traders directly prejudiced by these operations. The fact that the direct suppliers are comparatively fpw, however, does not lessen the impropriety of the State ousting private enterprise from its legitimate sphere at the expense of a public that obtains no advantage at all from its activities.