GOVERNMENT IN BUSINESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22046, 28 February 1935, Page 10

GOVERNMENT IN BUSINESS

Speaking face to face with a gathering of business men in Wellington, the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Masters, suggested that in the future —the near future —Governments would be taking a greater part in trade and commerce than they have done in the past. That this is one of the dangers of the day cannot be denied. Mr. Masters did not deal with it as though it were a danger. Bather he was inclined to defend, if not to extol, the tendency. Mr. Masters said Governments, in spite of themselves, were being forced into trading under prevailing conditions. It is true that Government interference has often been invited by those destined eventually to regret the step bitterly ; but it is not on record that either politicians or officials have struggled very valiantly to hold aloof. The consequence has been an increasing advance into the business arena, both as a regulating or controlling authority and as an active competitor with private enterprise. One of the difficulties is that Governments can play a useful part in such affairs, if only the proper degree of intervention is recognised and rigidly observed. For instance, in the work of establishing and watching to maintain standards, service of high value has been rendered to the dairy ing industry. Again, there are enterprises naturally monopolistic in character which the State can very well undertake. The post and telegraph services are the classic example. The difficulty is that these bounds are so soon overstepped. The dividing line between useful regulation and vexatious interference is too easily crossed. When the Govern ment appears as an operator, unfair nrivileges are claimed and enforced. For instance, as money-lender, the State has avoided rating obligations which private lenders have to carry and now proposes to hand this immunity, which has worked serious injustices, on to a semi-private corporation. Mr. Masters suggested that business men should see there were men in Parliament competent to deal with the new problems of trade politics and commerce. It would be far better for the country to have in Parliament men determined that the line should be strictly drawn between what the State can properlv do in these fields and what is much better left. free of interference.