LICENSING INDUSTRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 14

LICENSING INDUSTRY

The consuming public as well as industrialists are closely concerned in Mr. Sullivan's plans, as announced this morning, for the control and expansion of industries. Broadly his scheme is that known in other countries as rationalisation. It is usually justified, as Mr. Sullivan justifies it, in the name of efficiency, and its guiding principles are the same as those the Auckland Milk Council is attempting to apply. In Britain and on the Continent rationalisation usually involves mergers or the formation of price-fixing or trade associations, variously called trusts or cartels or federations. The movement has on occasion been assisted by legislation, but more often has been voluntary. Mr. Sullivan hopes to do much by encouraging free associations, but intends to keep compulsion in reserve. His power will reside in the authority to be given him to license existing and projected industries. That means the end of free enterprise. A new concern may not begin to operate without the Minister's authority; an existing one may not carry on unless it obtain a licence to do so. That is an immense and dangerous power to place in the hands of any man, however well-intentioned and however wise. Mr. Sullivan seeks it in the name of efficiency. If that result could only be guaranteed, the sacrifice of freedom and the enthronement of monopoly might be contemplated. It has not, however, been the common experience to find that the suppression of competition created more work or lower prices. Neither has closer regulation and control by the State tended to these desirable ends. The public will therefore be well advised to ponder the proposals to be incorporated iu Mr. .Sullivan's Industry Establishment and Efficiency Bill.