THE REVIVAL OF FREEDOM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18352, 16 September 1921, Page 4

THE REVIVAL OF FREEDOM.

Evekt country directly concerned in tlie Great War was necessarily subjected to an unprecedented measure of bureaucratic rule in which restrictive regulations of many kinds became a pronounced feature of government. The need for the existence of official restrictions having long since passed away, a substantial and growing movement has manifested itself for the restoration of freedom in all departments of life and more especially in respect of trade and commerce. Prior to the re-' gulation period certain evils associated with unfair trading had become apparent, and as the regulations applying to such cases were ostensiblydesigned to secure the protection of the public, they were hailed in various quarters as beacons of hope inaugurating a better day. Experience has proved, however, that the policy of State interference has been attended, perhaps unexpectedly, by difficulties greater than accompanied the fullest measure of freedom of trade. Many concrete examples of the abuses arising from over-regulation could be quoted. Recent discussions in the Christchurch City Council on the subject of rent restrictions have been illuminating. Last month the council decided that the time had arrived when all war legislation affecting the rights of landlord and tenant should be repealed. On Monday evening last an effort was made to reverse the previous decision of the Council, hut a motion with this object in view was lost by eleven votes to five. The discussion illustrated some of the anomalies in the existing law and the abuses arising out of it. Houses were allowed to remain empty because landlords had no means of removing tenants if the houses were sold. “There are many empty houses in Christchurch to-day,” said one councillor who is a trade union secretary, “that the owners would let for 15s to 17s 6d a week if they could be sure of getting possession < when’ they wanted it.” Another councillor quoted a case at St. Albans where a tenant had refused to pay more than 28s 6d per week, although he was letting half the house for more than 28s 6d. Incidentally, it was pointed out that only eighteen replies had been received as a result of the council’s advertised request that those persons in need of houses should

forward their names and particulars of their requirements. This, together with the fact that the increase in population in Christchurch during the past five years has been 11.4 per cent., while the increase in dwellings has been 14.8 per cent., leads the Press to “doubt whether there is much need for the agitation which has been going on.” Be that as it may, it is clear that rentrestriction regulations have done nothing to solve the housing question, but on the other hand have certainly discouraged building enterprise. A well-known social reformer, writing to a leading English newspaper, recently declared that her “objection to the policy of State regulation is just this: That it does not give us houses.” As with houses, so it is in other spheres, and the decision of Sir George Fuller, leader of the Nationalist Party in New South Wales, to include the abolition of the Board of Trade and tribunals for fixing rents and prices in the platform of his party indicates the political trend of the times. Sir George Fuller declares that the restrictive regulations are in practice producing permanent unemployment, and he has expressed the belief that the workers themselves are realising that those measures, which were guaranteed to bring about the social and industrial millennium, have wrought nothing but hurt, and if persisted in will lead to disaster. The victory of Mr Lawson in the Victorian Parliament for “as little interference as possible with the natural course of trade” is also significant. It is becoming more and more abundantly clear that the restoration of fairness and freedom in tra<|e will do more than anything else to restore confidence and contribute to a complete return to normal conditions.