BUSINESS IN GOVERNMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20475, 29 January 1930, Page 12

BUSINESS IN GOVERNMENT.

Although nominally n discussion of the tariff question, Mr. Machin's address to the' Chamber of Commerce yesterday was extended into a general survey of the effect upon economic conditions of legislative and administrative actions. Instead of expounding his own conclusions, Mr. Machin suggested points for consideration, presumably with the hope that his observations will stimulate deliberation upon the problems of industry and commerce. But if he refrained from advocacy of any comprehensive.solution, the address certainly contains a clear indication of one direction in which remedial treatment may be applied. The general intention of Mr. Machin's argument appears to be that the economic welfare of the country is hampered by arbitrary restrictions and by the burden of extravagance in public expenditure. As a general proposition, this view would be easily sustained. There is abundant evidence that legislative and governmental interference in all forms of commercial and industrial activity has become excessive, and the indifference of Governments to appeals for economy, or their.-inability to respond to them, needs no demonstration. Mr. Machin had two suggestions to make —that the restrictions should be avoided by removing industrial relations from the political arena and that Governments should appeal to the commercial community for advice. Neither can be regarded very hopefully. Restrictions arising from legislative authority cannot be ignored, and Governments have shown little disposition to seek advice and less to act upon proffered instruction. The real weakness is not lack of co-ordination between Parliament and the commercial community, but the carelessness with which legislative power is entrusted to men having inferior qualifications of knowledge and experience for jts responsibilities. It is futile for the commercial community, through its recognised spokesmen, to complain of the mischievous experiments of legislation, to protest at the expensive methods of national administration, so long as the constitution of Parliament is neglected and the electors are offered no better choice than between amateurs in administration and doctrinaires in political economy. The idea of consultation between Parliament and the commercial community is it was attempted, the latter would either be impotent or would supersede Parliament. The real remedy is obviously for the commercial community —using the term in its widest sense —to enter Parliament, where it could exert a positive influence upon legislation and administration. Commercial organisations, an infinite variety and succession of leagues and associations, have striven in vain to direct the course of political action. Surely it is time to recognise that business in government will be' established only when men with business brains and business experience are placed in Parliament and in the Ministry.