BLOW AT BUSINESS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20887, 19 August 1939, Page 9

BLOW AT BUSINESS

INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY ROOT PRINCIPLES ATTACKED GOVERNMENT DICTATION (Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Saturday “Socialism is being introduced by steady and successive stages. The process is going on all the time and the Industrial Efficiency Act is just one other example of the many different but cleverly thought-out methods,” declared Mr R. M. Algie in an address to the Penwomen’s Club yesterday. “There are very few statutes in the law of this country that are so abundantly stocked with vicious principles as the Industrial Efficiency Act, and the amazing thing is that this piece of legislation has attracted so little attention and so small an amount of public criticism,” said Mr Algie. With its introduction of a further instalment of the licensing principle, the Act dealt another blow at the very roots of morale in business, Mr Algie. said, and cleared the ground for the growth of a new crop of troubles, among which corruption might not be the least conspicuous. The Bureau of Industries could pry into the books, documents, records and affairs generally of every business in the Dominion. At any time when the Minister felt inclined, he could “direct” the bureau to prepare a plan for the organisation of an industry or some branch of it. Sacrifice of Minority If a bare majority of the principals of the business affected were prepared to give it their approval, the Gover-nor-General could bring the plan into immediate operation, Mr Algie added. The minority would be offered upon the altar of sacrifice to socialistic principle. From that time onward they would have to conduct their businesses, not according to the dictates of their own judgment and experience, but pursuant to rules laid down for them by someone else. The Minister, as representative of a political party with a policy of its own t j carry out, could under the Act declare at any time that any given industry, trade or. profession should thenceforward be carried on only under license, Mr Algie said. Those already in the industry would have to seek permission to continue to function. Those desirous of starting out on their own would find that they could not even begin unless and until the necessary license had been secured.