ECONOMIC PLANNING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21952, 8 November 1934, Page 17

ECONOMIC PLANNING

OffiUSTRIAL CO-ORDINATION ~ , SOME ACTION NECESSARY ' .. m WORLD-WIDE TENDENCIES . _/ if •'Although New Zealand manufacturers have justified the protection given ! by the customs tariff, they have still > %o face the fact that the tendency of times is for economic planning, •and, has happened elsewhere, the State liere may yet insist upon industrial co-ordination as the price ..for tariff protection," said the president, £f r . A. C. Allum, in his address at i the annual meeting of the Auckland •*! Jlanufarturers' Association yesterday, i- Various countries had committed themselves to economic planning of ip<fustries, said Mr. Allum, and whether lone approved of thdt policy or not, it should be clear that New Zealand could not stand alone. The recent investigation of the primary industries of the Dominion had produced a report which Jvould probably result in the handing over of the control of agriculture to ■ an executive commission having the Videst powers. "Fortunately," said Mr. Allum, "experience shows that planned Economy and an organised industrial System can be produced by consent as %ell as by compulsion." { Recognising the situation and desiring to maintain $e initiative in this *tirae of rapid change in economic conditions, the New Zealand Manufacturers' , federation had set up a committee to Wive a policy of industrial co-ordina-Ition. Two proposals had been made and 'these had already bean published, said the president. The first involved the reconstruction of the Industries Department and the incorporation of the 'work of the several departments which now dealt with manufacturers and their „ i' organisations, and the second concerned a scheme, for co-ordination. "These'proposals are important and and I realise that at first gjeht thev appear to interfere with individual liberty, of action," said Mr. ■ "A little consideration, however will show that such. is not the case' and manufacturers should seriously consider the alternative, which is fto do nothing and 'drift. .Anyone who makes any study of the, economic trend ?of to-day must realise that to do nothling yand to drift will be fatal to any /interest:" 5 ■ " • \