STATE INTERFERENCE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19881, 7 March 1939, Page 6

STATE INTERFERENCE

ADVICE TO BUSINESS MEN

MR. S. 0. HOLLAND’S VIEW

“If you wish to see less interference by the Government in business then don’t ask for more of it,” said Mr. S. G. Holland, M.P. for Christchurch North, in the course of an address on businessmen’s problems as seen by a Parliamentarian at a luncheon held by the Stratford Chamber of Commerce.

Referring to the paradoxical situations in which many businessmen had found themselves in the past when urging upon the Government of the day the necessity for a greater regulation of this or that in trade or industry while demanding greater freedom for themselves, Mr. Holland stated that it was unfair to expect any Government to solve technical problems in trade or industry unless the business men affected had some solution of their own to offer. Personal expediency seemed to be given attention out of all proportion to its place in the scheme of things. Principles were in danger of disappearing, and tiie standard of commercial morality was not nearly as high as years ago.

As a manufacturer, Mr. Holland proceeded, he himself acknowledged this fact. The sanctity of contract had been scattered to the winds, and dishonour had been made legal and respectable. To-day a man said: “Can the law make me pay? How can I get out of this?” There was a constant demand by many interests for tiie regulation of the other fellow. It seemed to the speaker that if less interference was wanted then business men should ask for less.