The Waikato Times THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1939 COMPLICATION OF GOVERNMENT

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20784, 20 April 1939, Page 8

The Waikato Times THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1939 COMPLICATION OF GOVERNMENT

I nnecessary complication of State and private affairs by a superabundance of regulations was the subject of an appeal by "the piesident of the A aikato Sub-Province of the Farmers’ Union, Mr T Crawley, at a meeting at Hamilton. The general public reechoes that appeal very earnestly. Simplification is unquestionably one of the greatest needs in local and national government. Science and efficiency demand it; yet in recent years regulation has been piled on regulation until a great part of the nation’s energy is expended in government instead of in production. Life in general has become far too complicated.

If the multiplication of regulations meant greater efficiency or greater economy it could be understood, but tbe fact is that thousands of workers have been added to the staffs of the vast network of Government departments simply to administer legislative enactments and their accompanying shoals of regulations. To an astounding extent the people of Aew Zealand are earning a living by taking in each other s washing. Someone has to pay for it, and those who are paying are those engaged in useful production. Every man and woman—now even children of 16—spends a considerable part of life complying with regulations to keep pace with the law, and in the process a great deal of nervous energy is expended. Any man without a well kept diary of his obligations goes in constant fear that he has left undone something that the State requires of him.

Much of the difficulty is attributable to the mental attitude of those who constitute the Government, many of whom apparently believe they are elected to govern for governing’s sake. Government has become a business to be built up continually until it occupies the whole outlook and the whole time of as many people as possible. Tbe real interests and happiness of the ordinary citizen arc of minor importance as long as the State machine continues to function as a fearsome tiling of wheels within wheels and complications that strike awe into the hearts of the people who, after all, are the only ones who matter.

Is it not time the process was reversed 1 Every session of Parliament adds to tho mountain of legislation, and between sessions regulations are poured out in an unending stream. Parliament would be forgiven if it allowed a session to pass without a solitary new enactment if it would only consolidate and simplify the laws that already encumber the country. Good government does not require constant new legislation. Rather does the constant flow of enactments indicate an inherent weakness in the system of government. A country that requires such hidebound regulation must be suffering either from a grave inward sickness or from crass overgovernment. The time is coming when freedom will have lost its meaning. Of course it is recognised that New Zealand’s troubles are not all of her own making, and that world-wide conditions have necessitated many changes, but there is obvious necessity for the Government to realise that it is the public welfare and not the bulk of the Statute Book that betokens good government.