Free Enterprise

Wanganui Chronicle, 5 July 1950, Page 6

Free Enterprise

Mr. Tennent said he believed it was Labour’s methods of putting their ideals into practice which were responsible for their election defeat. The National Government believed that national prosperity and greatness had been built up under a system of free enterprise. It aimed to restore confidence in the £ and to aVert the threat of further nationalisation of industry. The social and economic structure had to be improved if the Government was to keep up to date, and in appeals for quantity production there must also be quality. "We believe in emphasis on quality in industrial processes, and in the quality of individual citizens, and it is our intention to develop such qualities to the full, which can only be done in a free society," said Mr. Tennent.

Sectional interests should be decided on their own merits. There was no doubt that the responsibilities of Government were growing, and the responsibilities of the individual also, but in pursuing an objective of material wellbeing, individual freedom and responsibility should not be lost sight of.

Mr Tennent said that Socialism had dissipated the country’s substance and through inflation the working man had been deprived of a proportion of the fruits of his labour. The National Government’s difficult task would be to straighten up the finances of the country, and unless that was done the complete fulfilment of its pledges could not be realised. The basis of the Government policy would be restoration of private enterprise In primary and secondary production, thereby enabling industries to develop unhampered by State or other Interference.

This country could hold and increase overall social benefits only by providing the wherewithal to pay for them, and the Government would seek both to increase the revenue from production and' spend it more wisely. One of the greatest current problems was the shortage of manpower 'loo many plants were unable to work to a maximum capacity, with the result that the cost of their output became higher. This shortage was due to the low birthrate of the depression age, to the raising of the school-leaving age <an excellent thing in itself), to a number of workers leaving industry on reaching the retiring age because there is no inducement to them to continue working, and to the unchecked growth of secondary indusCrtes.