PARLIAMENT

Southland Times, Issue 21895, 22 December 1932, Page 6

PARLIAMENT

STRONG CRITICISM INTERFERENCE WITH PRIVATE CONTRACTS “LEGISLATIVE HOLIDAY NEEDED” (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, December 21. Mr Burgess, chairman of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, in a statement to-day said the fact to be faced was that more harm than good was being done by legislation interposing the State in private contracts. However pressing the situation and however great the justification the legislators of the country considered to be theirs in making those laws, it should be clearly indicated that they were of a purely temporary nature and should be cancelled at the earliest possible opportunity. Mr Burgess said legislation, while of some immediate benefit to certain farmers, destroyed the confidence of investors in mortgages and made it harder than ever for members of the farming community as a whole to arrange finance for carrying on. This must necessarily follow interference with inevitable economic processes.

“It is evident the general public is looking to the Parliamentary machine to legislate us into better times,” said Mr Burgess. “I wish to stress on behalf of my association that this is altogether wrong. The new Statutes for such a purpose are no use because if those Statutes interfere further with natural economic processes, they will be not merely useless but definitely injurious. The most the community hopes for, and the most constructive proposal it can urge for the purpose of economic reconstruction, is that Parliament cease to interfere with trade, industry and commerce. The business world, is endeavouring to carry on not with the help of what Parliament does, but in spite of what Parliament does. The powers of Parliament have been widely used beyond the proper sphere and it is time the country realized that individual endeavour is the mainspring of trade prosperity. We are confronted with circumstances which can be surmounted only by a determined process of individual adjustment to conform to the reduced national and private income, an adjustment that is still going on quietly and unobtrusively in private business. This remedy may be unattractive —even painful—but it is the only remedy. There are two things Parliament can do—stop borrowing and reduce expenditure. There are many recommendations made by the National Expenditure Commission which have not , t been adopted. Beyond that the country needs a legislative holiday in order that we may be enabled to get on with the job.”