STATE AND EMPLOYER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19803, 3 December 1938, Page 18

STATE AND EMPLOYER

ECONOMIC PROGRESS

RINTPEOCAi, IH'TY RESTRAINT NOT 11 KIEF EE “If we. as employers of labour, have responsibilities to the Stale, no less has the State a responsibility to us,” said the president of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, Mr. J. T. Spears, in his address at the opening of the annual conference of the federation in Wellington. "If the State expects us to increase ar.d maintain production at such a level as will absorb the unemployed, the State must make it possible for us to do so. Reseraints, restrictions and prohibitions 'by taxation and regulations are not a remedy; rather are they a drag on economic progress.

"Surely it is the province of government to see that the brains, initiative and enterprise of the country are given a fair field in which to operate, subject, of course, to scrupulously honourable treatment of the employees,” Mr. Spears said. "In matters of conducting business the Government should confine itself to national social services. Experience has shown that where the State goes outside .its province and enters into competition widi private enterprise tiie country pays the piper. The State is always extravagant in administration and wasteful in detail. "Let the Government confine used to outlining the rules, and then leave.the individuals to play the game. The urge to do well financially will compel the rendering of service, and will determine efficiency, whereas Government interference in business has universally proved destructive. "May we exhort the Government and trade unions to assist industry in a spirit of co-operation, so that all may work in harmony for the common good of all.”