PROGRESS MAY BE IMPEDED

Southland Times, Issue 24548, 24 September 1941, Page 6

PROGRESS MAY BE IMPEDED

Probable Effect Of Standards r — (Special) WELLINGTON, Sept. 23. “The nigger in the woodpile of this Bill is that standardization and socialization go hand in hand,” said Mr F. ; W. Doidge (Nat., Tauranga) during • the debate on the Standards Bill in the House of Representatives today. Mr Doidge said that a great danger was that the Minister of Industries and Commerce would not be able to rely on the voluntary application of the proposals under the Bill. The Minister had told the House that he must have powers of compulsion which, in the ears of New Zealand people, were beginning to sound ugly. Mr Doidge said that methods of standardization were desirable in many instances, but there were two methods of bringing it about, voluntarily and compulsorily. When the Minister cited what was being done in the United States and the United Kingdom he failed to mention that such compulsion as had been applied was for the period of the war alone. Much was in the Bill to justify the fear that any politically-minded Minister could employ strong compulsion with a socialist objective. It was just one more Bill tightening the grip of State control. A STANDARD DAY Mr Doidge said it was obvious that a sound system of standards would save the public from a great deal of exploitation and fraud and would cut out a good deal of cheapjack commodities that came into the country. There was need for standardization of spare parts, which were the bugbear of the farmer and the anathema of the merchant. No doubt some plan of voluntary standards was needed, but the danger was in the creation of sameness in all things and sameness < meant ugliness. “Despite the Minister’s assurances we can visualize a standard day,” said Mr Doidge. “A man would get out of his standard bed, use standard soap in a standard bath, have a standard breakfast, arrive at a standard office, do a standard day’s work, and not recognize his wife in the street because she could not be distinguished from other women also wearing standard clothes. When ill he would call in a standard doctor receiving standard pay, get standard treatment and, when he ultimately died, be buried in a standard coffin.” (Laughter.) Mr Doidge said that once standards were set there would be no breaking away from them and that would be a bar to progress. An army of inspectors to go into shops and examine goods would have to be established, and the Civil Service was already top-heavy. Business would once again be clamped down under the iron hold of State control.