INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23013, 16 October 1936, Page 8

INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY

The Minister of Industries and Commerce has been deaf to the requests of various organisations of business people in New Zealand that the passage of the Industrial Efficiency Bill should be delayed until next year in order that opportunity may be afforded for a full consideration of the possible effects of the enactment of this measure. To these requests was added a powerful appeal last night by the Viscount Elibank, representative of British capital which possesses important interests in this Dominion. This appeal is one that should influence the Minister, if for no other reason, because the adoption of legislation, which might conceivably subject all industry to a certain amount of control by a bureau largely composed of public servants, whose knowledge and experience of business cannot be more than limited, may operate adversely upon the negotiations that are to be conducted by the Minister of Finance, on behalf of the Government, on his visit to Great Britain. The Minister is, as Viscount Elibank showed, under a misapprehension when he supposes that any legislation, corresponding to that which he proposes, has been passed by, or even submitted to, the British Parliament. It is legislation which, whatever the Manufacturers' • Federation in the Dominion may have been induced to think about it, may be applied in such a way as positively to hamstring industry. And it is quite clear that,- because of this, it is not only likely to discourage, to a serious extent, the investment of British capital in this country but also to excite a feeling of concern among those sections of the British people whose goodwill it is necessary for New Zealand to retain. It is not too late for the Minister of Industries and Commerce to listen to the fresh and impressive appeal that has been addressed to him to withdraw the Bill from the consideration of Parliament in the present session.