STATE CONTROL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 73, Issue 6284, 23 September 1946, Page 4

STATE CONTROL

OPPOSED TO PRINCIPLE OF FREEDOM RECOGNITION OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE A strong plea for the arresting of further State control and for recognition of the place of private enterprise was made by Mr J. R- Dench, retiring presidence of the Canterbury Chamber of Co'mmerce, at the annual meeting of the chamber. At this time, Mr Dench said, the choice seemed to lie between freedom of the individual (subject to reasonable safeguards) and absolute regimentation and mastery by the State. Complete regimentation of a country in the result would mean one political party without anyone free from party-political influence, he said. Political control and industry and business were incompatible. If the contention that regimentation meant one party was not acceptable, then under a democratic system changes in government would render trading operations practically unworkable, and the whole economic structure and outlook could change with the fortunes of the parties. The Government could not find successors, while changes in personnel, government or parties would result in changes of policy if the conduct of businesses touch on public interest and the electorate. Purely economic functions of the country would become involved in party political aims with dire results for those conducting business with State trading organisations.

Personal liberty also disappeared in a State-controlled community, Mr Dench said. State control presupposed control of manpower, labour and wages, and therefore private lives, but while it was accepted in time of national difficulty workers and others in the Dominion would not readily accept it in time of peace. Even if the principle of State trading was good, at least in a democratic state any further attempts at conversion from freedom of enterprise to State control at present would be suicidal, he said, as it was impossible to rehabilitate returned servicemen and women and place the displaced civilian workers without relying mainly on free enterprise. It was logical to reason that the process of State control should be arrested and the fullest assurance given to industry and enterprise so that immediate steps could be taken to expand business to enable the placement of the maximum number of employees. Returned men themselves would expect economic freedom in the period of reconstruction.

Mr Dench added that social security, insurance, pensions and other benefits could be supported only by hard work and the most effective operation of the country’s economy, with increased* production as the necessary counterpart of improved wages and conditions. He also quoted opinions of prominent men —including the socialist, Mr R. Welensky, C.M.G., a member of the Northern Rhodesian Legislative Council—in support of his case on the value of private enterprise.