“STATE DEPENDANTS”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8679, 12 March 1914, Page 3

“STATE DEPENDANTS”

EARL GREY’S WARNING

SIR JOHN FINDLAY REPLIES. Special to the “Times.” CHRISTCHURCH, March 11. Earl Grey’s statements in Wellington yesterday in regard to the large numbers of people in New Zealand who are dependent upon the State, causing him a “shiver of apprehension,” were brought under the notice of Sir John Findlay, Attorney-Gen-eral and Minister for Justice in Sir Joseph Ward’s Administration, this morning.

As Sir John has made a deep study of the problems associated with' tie State experiments, notably in entering upon industrial enterprises, he was asked if he shared the visitor’s fears in this respect. He said at once that, so far from entertaining such fears, ho looked forward to an extension of State industrial enterprise, and consequently to an increase in the number of State employees. He went on to say that the statements were an illustrations of the hasty conclusions from inadequate data to which even the most distinguished visitors to the country sometimes committed . themselves. It was absurd to suggest, for instance, that the great body of railway workers, that the splendid army of school" teachers, and that the highly efficient public servants in the Post and Telegraph Department, were “lying down upon the State.” As a matter of fact, all those servants were doing essential work for the wellbeing and the progress of the nation. There was absolutely nothing of a parasitical character in their relationship to the State. He was convicted that there was room for a. great extension of both State and municipal, employment. It would exclude and check monopolies; it could deal with service? which . could not be worked satisfactorily under any system of private employment; it could smooth operations in other parts of the industrial system; it could provide services to minister to the public health and convenience. The New Zealand railway system had been a complete protection of the people against the exploitations of railway .kings. There were growing up in New Zealand monopolies that were directly affecting the cost of living. In those cases Government interference with the way in which private persons conducted their business was quite justified, and Government interference meant further Government employment. He believed that State employment could be extended with advantage to. the work of stevedoring at the Dominion’s ports, for it was an important link in the chain of the transport system. The successful operations of industries depended on the efficiency and reliability of the stevedoring system, and a satisfactory, stevedoring system could not be obtained under private competition and employment, and to make stevedoring a part of the railway system would necessitate an increase of those whom the State employed. : Sir John agreed with Earl Grey that it demoralised people to encourage them to rely upon the State instead of upon themselves, but there was a vast difference between spoonfeeding men and providing them with a means; of earning a living. . Earl Grey : seemed to think that State action and State help were inherently bad. That was a. prejudice which, unfortunately, was too common amongst a certain section of public men; There was a fantastic misunderstanding of ,tho purposes of those who advocated an extension of, prudent State ■ action. • There was the bogey of Socialism and the statement that the individual would be crushed beneath the weight of collective tyranny, and no section ,of the community raised the cry more loudly than the section for which the State had done. most. Some years ago he pointed out that in this country there had .been more State action to help farmers by providing land, transportation, training, and so on, than to help any other section of the people, but nobody found in that advance of State activity any danger to the' popular welfare; nobody Suggested that the State-assisted . settlers had been “lying down bn the State.” The very agencies •by which the - Government in New Zealand had been able to promote individual welfare had increased the number of State .employees', and if the policy was carried out more vigorously so'the number of employees must increase. • Further symptoms of “national decadence” in that direction : in fact would be a proof of national progress.'