N.Z. OVER-GOVERNED

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 364, 4 March 1932, Page 4

N.Z. OVER-GOVERNED

A Lumbering Bureaucracy, says Professor. DOMINION’S STATE TO-DAY. (Special to the "Star.”) AUCKLAND, March 4. “ Summing up in a few words, and having particular regard to what has taken place in Wellington in the past few days, I can only say that legislation in its present form has lost its hold on the better sentiments of the people, and might be described as obsolete.” This statement was made by Professor R. M. Algie, who holds the chair of law at the Auckland University College, when speaking to members of the Auckland Creditmen’s Club. Professor Algie has just returned from a tour abroad, and he said that while he did not visit very many countries, he made a close study of those he did. Price Paid for Demorcacy. “We know, when we face squarely up to the facts, that our present extravagant total of public expenditure is simply and solely the price we have paid for our democracy. No serious attempt has ever been made to convince public opinion that in a country like this lavish political expenditure in the interests of a part of the community can be met only at the expense of some other section of the people.” What New Zealand, as a young country, needed most, with its producers seriously handicapped, was a policy of rigid economy, with a consequent development of capital assets. “What have we achieved?” he asked. “We have a bureaucracy which, in number, stands at a very high level

when compared with other countries. And we have a multiplicity of Departments, boards, commissions, committees and the like, all of which cost huge sums by way of annual expenditure. and all of which interfere to a greater or lesser extent with the muchneeded development of business, and with the free play of individual effort. “ On its Trial.” “ Democracy is on its trial. If we cannot make our political institutions really responsive to the wishes of the people: if we cannot produce a people capable of thinking and voting on broad national principles: if our people cannot disregard entirely those electioneering promises which will provide benefits prejudicial to the general welfare of the community: if we cannot make our bureaucracy less expensive, less wasteful and more justifiable on the grounds of real necessity—then mi.' democracy must undoubtedly perish under the ruthless economic pressure of the age.”