Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1929. STATE V. INDIVIDUAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16923, 11 April 1929, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1929. STATE V. INDIVIDUAL

It is of the greatest importance that the citizens of this Dominion should realise the implications of the avowed policy of the Labor Party in the matter of State competition with private enterprise. That their policy is ond of encouragement and development is evidenced l»v a resolution passed at the recent Labor conference in Wellington. in the terms of the motion, it, was resolved; ‘‘That the Labor Conference affirms that the wise and efficient administration of the public services of the Dominion will give a better return 1o the community than the same type' of service under private enterprise, and pledges the party to oppose, all efforts which may be made to retard or handicap local body or State organisations which are providing services or supplying goods at less cost than they have been supplied or .can. be supplied by private tender. ’’ Nothing could afford a clearer indication of the fact that Labor is out for nothing short of the total destruction of private enterprise. If further is needed, it can be found in a recent utterance of the Rev. J. Iv. Archer, Mayor of Christchurch, who, in a recent address was reported as asserting that the absolute destruction of private capitalism is the only true remedy for the economic troubles that exist to-day. He explained that he meant that everything should be held in common and operated in common for the benefit of the community. .Such idle generalisations, thousands of miles as they are away from the actual possibilities of sane economics, are nevertheless straws to show the tendency of such a “ wind of doctrine’' and constitute a warning to all concerned that it must not be taken for granted that there is nothing in common between Labor and out-aud-out Communism. Official declarations of the party arc one thing, but such crude utterances on the part of one holding an important civic position constitute an entirely different story. In view of the near approach of the local body elections in New Zealand it must be urged upon every citizen possessed of sane vision to ensure that he will be able.at the polls to assert his individual rights in the face of the encroachments of State competition or any of its related and subsidiary types. It ought to be a mutter of the gravest concern to all, to amend the absurd situation in this Dominion; for it has come to light that in general figures relating to the whole country, only some 30 per cent, of those entitled to vote in local government elections have even enrolled themselves; and it is by ho means to be assumed that those who. are enrolled will invariably record their votes. This is a serious matter. It is utterly of no use to express the pious hope that, things will be all right, that the good old sound British commonsense of the people will never allow extreme measures full sway, and so forth; but the significant and sinister fact remains that Labor all over the Dominion is organising tooth and nail for the conquest of local body elections, and that its policy must be met and countered by more than mere platitudes. The legal conference hold in Wellington Hie other clay seemed to be fully aware of the menace of State interference with private effort, as is evidenced by the address delivered by Mr. R. L, Ziman, one of'the Auckland representatives. He pointed out that the trading departments have by legislation acquired enormous privileges, not by direct Parliamentary grant, but simply by establishing trading activities in the name of the Crown. And he indicated the logical solution of such anomalies by saying that these trading departments should be converted by law into what they already are in fact, namely, trading and industrial corporations, and io endow them with exactly the same rights and liabilities as similar corporations owned by private individuals, “unless Parliament in its wisdom thinks fit ixpressly to grant any such State trading ‘ corporation special prjvi-

legos.” Without agreeing with the last-quoted clause, we can endorse the general principles that the State enterprises should possess no unfair legal advantage over similar enterprises on the part of individuals, that State activities along this line ought to be amenable to the ordinary rules of comparison with private enterprise —a thing at present impossible because of the great number of privileges and concessions inherent in State activities, and that all such adventures into industry on the part of the State should at least be carried on .in such a manner as to inflict no hardship on individuals who have no association with them. When it is all summed up, it is seen to be a question of ordinary fair play. Fair, free and open competition is and will remain the life of trade, no matter what the theorists, with their heads in the misty clouds of vague hopes and prophesyings have to say. The prosperity of any community, large or small, in the material sense, depends entirely upon the intelligent eo-operation of capital and labor. One could fill columns with examples drawn from the war years of what can happen when the ordinary work of industry is interrupted, when competition is withdrawn in the case of certain industries, and when Ihe hand of the State is at the helm. But in view or the fact that so many examples lie before our eyes at the present time, not, only here but in other parts of the world, it is unnecessary to do more than point out that in proportion as private capital is hindered in its natural means of application by unfair competition under which the scales are loaded against it, any community is bound to suffer. Realising the attack that is threatening the free play of competition in each locality due to the intentions of Labor, it is the duty of everyone who is anxious that prosperity should be founded on an abiding basis should see to it that provision is made for the voicing of personal opinion on the matter.