HOW FAR?

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 230, 28 September 1928, Page 8

HOW FAR?

GOVERNMENT IN BUSINESS.

SIR JOSEPH WAND'S OPINIONS.

( F.y Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, Thursdav.

How f;ir 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 coalmining concerns from imposing unduly charges. He had had a jrood 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 be was frequently urged to have all railwaymen's uniforms made in State factories, but he refused, and laid it down as policy that uniforms be made by private contractors. Otherwise it would mean throwing many men out of work. '"That was my opinion then, it is my opinion now," concluded Sir Joseph emphatically.