STATE MONOPOLY NOT DESIRABLE, DECLARES M.P.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18578, 28 September 1928, Page 13

STATE MONOPOLY NOT DESIRABLE, DECLARES M.P.

SIR JOSEPH WARD GIVES OPINION. (Special to the “Star.”) WELLINGTON, September 2S. How far should the State enter into competition against private enterprise? was a question answered by Sir Joseph Ward in the House to-night. He had listened to Labour members urging that the proposed third party insurance for motorists should be a State monopoly and provided a reply from his own experience as a member of the Government which established the State Fire Insurance Office.

It was decided, said Sir Joseph, that State institutions of this kind should be used as levers to prevent insurance companies, or coal mining concerns, from imposing unduly high charges. He had had a good deal to do with the policy of State institutions and he knew that his Ministerial colleagues, while believing it their duty to get cheap rates for the community, did not consider it their duty to drive other institutions out of the country. They secured details of the probable results of a State monopoly in insurance and found it would mean driving out of employment hundreds of breadwinners. When he was Minister of Railways he was frequently urged to have all railwayman's uniforms made in. State factories, but he refused and laid it down as policy that the uniforms should be made by private contractors. Otherwise, it would mean throwing men out of work. “That was ray opinion then. It is my opinion now,” concluded Sir Joseph, emphatically.