PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

Taranaki Daily News, 3 May 1933, Page 16

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE INDIVIDUAL EFFORT HAMPERED. STATE AND LOCAL BODY TRADE. INDICTMENT BY MR. A. O. HEANY. The alleged alarming extension of State and local body interference with, and unfair competition against, private enterprise was traced for the benefit of a gathering of Stratford business men yesterday by the organising secretary of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, Mr. A. O. Heany. He quoted a number of instances in support of his statements, and urged business men to use every endeavour to combat the incursion of State activity into spheres that rightly belonged to the individual to exploit and develop to the limit of his ability. Mr. Heany’s speech was full of forceful arguments, logically arranged to emphasise his points to the best advantage and the examples that he used in illustration were those of actual fact. Chambers of Commerce, be said, were charged with participation in politics, and the answer was that they did and would have to if they were to continue os active organisations. The trouble was that party politics were confused with general politics, but if the chambers entered into the latter how far did Parliament transgress into the realms of industry .and commerce? In 1931 the Christchurch Press published a leading article, that was as true to-day as it was then. In that article it was said that the line between politics and economics was hard to trace, and chambers could not apply themselves to economics without engaging in politics. “Chambers take no part in party polihe went on, “but they continue to uphold the principle that the individual, by virtue of his ability, is far more capable of producing wealth than is the State, which is regarded as a negative force with no power in itself to create wealth but with power to restrain and i?c strict* “The worth of a State depended upon the worth of the individuals comprising it so that the capital of a country was the pergonal ability of the individuals that went to make up the State. A perusal of the records of the Associated Chambers would reveal no requests to the Government “to do sortiething,” but it would show that the Government had been asked to keep out of business because the individual was more capable than politicians in the mass or than bureaucrats in the mass or in theparticular. "THE VICTORIAN ERA.* "A criticism that is frequently directed at opponents of State enterprise is that th,eir ideas belong to the Victorian era, and that in these enlightened days the needs and realities of modern governments can recognise practically no limits to the sphere of governmental activity,” Mr. Heany said. “Well,” he continued, “the Victorian era is in some respects deserving more of study than of scorn, but it has to be admitted that the great trouble with State enterprise, interference and regulation is that, once started, it spreads rar beyond the original conception or intention. This is due partly to its own volition and partly to the impetus industriously given it by those servants whom we place in charge on behalf of the public.” New Zealand abounded in instances of that kind. The Public Trust Office exceeded the functions of trusteeship for which it was established, and engaged in borrowing and lending. The Railways Department, whose function was that of a land carrier, had branched out into its own workshops and was now competing with private engineering concerns in the supply of manufactured goods to Government departments. Besides that, it undertook publishing activities and road transport, housing and the operation of steamers, and had substituted its own employees for lessees of station bookstalls. The Cook Islands Department initiated new competition with Cook Islands fruit by the operation of a vessel of its own, the Maui Pomare. The Department of Health grew into possession of its own doctors and dentists. The Department of Agriculture became a vendor of poisons and wines. The Public Works Department, basically a constructional department, took over the operation of the State’s electric power schemes, the operation of sawmills and quarries, the building of houses and architectural work. It would be noted that all those extended activities came into direct and unfair competition with private enterprise. The latest case to hand was trading by the Department of Agriculture in wines, which appeared to have been going on for years. Letters from an authorised distributor for the department, soliciting orders for cases of wine, had recently been broadcast over Wanganui at least. Those wines, although they were in the hands of a private distributor, came from State vineyards that bore no rates and taxes, and they were made available at prices that did not allow for overhead charges. What of private vintners? The State vineyards were established for the purpose of teaching growers the production of grapes and wine, not to penalise them after they had started. The National Expenditure Commission said that the station at which those wines were produced had demonstrated the possibility of the industry, and that there was no further reason why the department should continue to engage in the business. The Commission recommended that the property be disposed of at the first opportunity. PUBLIC BODIES NOT FREE. That example was little different from many cases of expansion of State enterprise to the detriment of private trade. The National Expenditure Commission said that the ramifications of State enterprise could not be realised unless close examination of State departments was undertaken. Other public bodies were not free from that disturbing development. Power boards, established as distributing agents for the Government, were going beyond the sale of power and dealing, tax-free, in electrical appliances, including even radio sets, while the private trader tried to go on competing under the weight of his rates and taxes. Tax-free municipal departments had moved on to trading in .electrical and gas appliances, and even in tinned meat. The trading activities of national and local government generally were splayed out in every direction like the branches of a growing tree. Already State and local body enterprise had crossed all boundaries in New Zealand. Where was it going to end? Who would be the next to be affected by such insidious and privileged competition? Those who ridiculed ideas of restricting the activities of the could not say where it would end. The thing had gone beyond them.. “We car* hope for no alleviation so long as we continue to drift aimlessly, with no fixed principle, looking to the State as a universal provider, or tolerating it as such,” he said. “In time, there will be no one else but the State to look to—not even ourselves—since the liberty of the individual, that has been won by travail, will have been filched away in apathy. And then we Shall know fuUy what Socialism means,”

The most urgent need of New Zealand to-day was that private enterprise should have the freest possible play. The splendour of England, with her mighty industries and far-flung trade, was built up on private endeavour, as was the Empire, and the only hope of the Dominion was that the private individual should be given his liberty of action in trade, industry and commerce, free from State repression and unfair competition, and unhampered by State regulation and interference. As a virile individualist of England wrote recently: “Government can be productive of good in such a realm as education, in some departments of health, and in various other ways which have nothing directly to do with the production of material wealth. But all experience of all time so far proves that when Government attempts to make tilings, to produce things, to create wealth, it fails. Government can create conditions under which the individual is able to function to the fullest advantage. Beyond that it is practically powerless arid, in the main, inefficient.” Private enterprise wanted no more than its freedom and just treatment. Public trading concerns should be taxed the same as private enterprise. Legislation and regulation had raised a forest of fences and sign-posts in front of it, but it had to go its own way. There was a lot of clearing to be done, and chambers of commerce should continue to stand resolutely on the principle of private enterprise. “If every new proposal for legislative or regulative action were examined from the standpoint of whether it would be harmful to private enterprise and individual endeavour, we would be setting our compass on a guiding principle that would keep us from the shoals, stated the speaker in conclusion. “The State must take its proper place if our economic system is to survive. When that is done we shall know better days.”