BOARD OF TRADE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11512, 7 October 1915, Page 6

BOARD OF TRADE.

FAULTS AND DEFECTS. SHOULD BE NON-POLITICAL, j DR BIGHT'S CRITICISM. j 'Che Hoard of Trade to hi- ;•< < >;j> 'Hide:- rhe ( -o>t of hiving Bill in'oiiL'hv. 1 <|o,\ i) in Parliament wsterday is ject io a great deal ol adverse crnieisi;'. both in regard 1o It.s constitution and rower:-. 'I If principal object ions are that it is: a pclilic.il hoard, 'ind that ii> ;t' ! i rjtii'-s aiti limited to loodstutlswilhout reference to other monopolies. AN ECONOMIST'S OPINION. " I think the. setting "P of this Boa''.] of '(r.'jde is certainly a step hi the right, direction," «a-!«l Or Might. Prolessor of J'icouotiiics at <. .interiutry (. oi"mihl one in whieii New Zealano. is not leading (.we following other coi 1 tries). lam specially interested m it as a. member ot the ("est. 01 I.i\>i;g (ommis.s.inri ot HU-. which, made a, reco mine no at ton to sot up a. Board] oi Industrial and iSooia.l Invest tgatioji. But I judge that the proposal, as far a.-- one can. grasp trom_ the te..c~ j graplnv! reports. »ill he snldecTed to , fhre.i <ritic.isms at ler.-st. CM course., I those who oppose the thing altogether j will simply condemn it, srivecpingly. but j tbo-e who are friendly towards the project, will at least criticise it in three 1 resn>ets. '■ TIT REIC WEA K POINTS. "In the> .tirst there is the re- . stfiction or the proposed extension oi tho ( ommereial Trusts Act to foodstuffs. There, are a good many who will believe that, tho scope of Unit Act t-ho.iM he extended to embrace other artides. Then there is the. criticism, that the powers of the board are purely advisory. 'lite board is not 1.0 be armed with power to inllict- penaTtics -- ' t.-o determine causes as wo.l as to make investigations. Thirdly, 11 i-. a, quasipolitical board, and I am concerned, mostly al. present with that, oriticism. The other two are delects, and they <-ou)d. be renie.ciied easily as we accumulated experience m the working of the machinery. Moreover, it; is not at all a. had thing to proceed with ;ui itnpsrtaut experiment of this kind step by stop, so long as we satisfy ourselves that the princip.es adopted are sound. POLITICAL TRAMMELS. • " The fact that the hoard is quasipolitical is to my mind a positive fault in it. and may seriously endanger the working of tho Act and bring discredit 011 the board. It is quasi-political because it is to be presided over by a, Minister of the Crown. J believe that no Minister or evou an ordinary member of Parliament should have a seat on this board'. Its functions are largely judicial. It will bo a. Court of Inquiry- a, sort oi permanent commission to discover and classify and interpret facts and make recommendations so that the Government and the public may at least- have tho benefit of a dispassionate _ survey of the facts. Now, if the. chairman of the board is to be a prominent, politidan 1 am afraid that the working ot the board, will alway* be subject to tho suspicion that it; is tho engine of party polities, and that the iiudiugs do not represent, the whole truth of tho matter in question. There will, therefore, ho any amount of opportunity for political and other sectional feelings to exploit their particular views in opposition to the findings of the board. SHOULD UK ABOVE SUSPICION. "The composition of the hoard and the conditions of tenure of office on it: should be such that the, members will j a I ways be .above the suspicion of being , influenced by any other suspicion than j the. _interests of the community. Then,, again, nothing is more likely than that the majority of our Ministers of Industry and Commerce, who are to form the, presidents of the board in succession, will he themselves directly interested. in businesses, or will be the heads of businesses, which are directly or indirectly implicated in charges which the board is called upon to investigate. I am strengthened i.u my opinion on this point by the fact thai; in ail the, cases that I am acquainted with of a similar board, there is no provision whereby a member of the Government, is part of tho board. These permanent boards are altogether separated from tho Executive) Government. of tho State in question. That is so in the United States, in which permanent commissions of this kind arc fairly common. In Ohio, for instance, ( tho permanent, Industrial Commission is composed of three members ap- j pointed bv the Governor, but comprises j 1 epresentativas of industry, commerce,! labour and expert economics, and if wo I look at the composition of the Australian inter-Stato Commission set up 111 1912 we find that all three members are non-political Each man holds 1 otfico for a term of seven years, and is | eligible for reappointment. His tenure of office, in fact, is similar to that of j our Supreme Court Judges, and I con- j sider that a member of this Commis- j sion should be as much above suspicion as a member of our local Supremo ] Court Bench."' BOARD OF TKADE A MISNOMER. l)r Hight added that the Board of Trade was such a well-known imhic, appMed to a Department of the Government in Eng' nd for a matter of two hundred year-, that it might be regarded as the >•, rong name for tho proposed Commissioners. Besides that, there was an agitation iu New Zealand .now lor Iho establishment of a Board of Trade with vastly different, functions. Ho thought that the- word Commissioner would be an advantage in the case of the now body, which was going to do away with the necessity of appointing so many Royal Commissions whenever tho Government wanted to take action. The new body should deal with all industrial and commercial inquiries, which. provided tho greater part of tho work oi temporary Commissions.