The Press Tuesday, November 1, 1927. The Encroaching "State."

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19146, 1 November 1927, Page 8

The Press Tuesday, November 1, 1927. The Encroaching "State."

The grave injury which the Dominion has sustained through the increasingsubordination of individual industry and freedom and enterprise to State action and State regulation lias been the subject of innumerable warnings and protests in these columns for .several years. When time 3 were good and everyone could bear without discomfort the cost and the inconvenience of a huge public service, our opinion on this subject was, as we know, thought to be only a harmless crotchet. One sectiqji now, and another section another time, feeling its liberty and energies hampered, would agree that there good ground for protest against the encroachments of " the State." Until v&y recently, however, they were not many who would agree with us that the separate small or large causes of irritation were all parts of a general tendency that had to be resisted. It is nearly two years since, after citing some illustrative examples, we printed this warning:

In every direction one sees Stale De partments moving towards the enslavement of an unreflecting people. Soim Departments, to be sure, merely do thr work they were appointed to do, ant have little or no opportunity to inter- ! fere with real personal liberty. But there is no State Department which would not use such opportunities if it had them. One can understand a Socialist's feeling that the more widely the power of "the State" is extended the better it will be, but the people of New Zealand are not Socialists. They have simply failed to notice the tendency of State "paternalism." Protests nro made from time to time against this or that encroachment by "the State," but the encroachments have been gradual, and never too close together in time to arouse the public. The tendency continues, and it will probably go on until people realise that it is doing serious injury to a country which cannot afford to have its energy and spirit frustrated by the bureaucratic machine.

The discussion at the conference of Chambers of Commerce yesterday showed that the business community has been aroused at last. The conference has been notable for the energy and earnestness with which the delegates attacked many important and pressing problems, but none of the discussions was more notable than that which concluded with the unanimous adoption of a resolution deploring " the huge increase in unfair State and " bureaucratic interference in private " enterprise" and resolving to work for the "repeal of such legislation as " curtails and interferes with legitimate "public trading." The mover of the resolution hardly went beyond the truth when he said that " if a Labour " Government had attempted half what "the present Government has donje it "would have aroused such a storm of " opposition as would have put that "Government out." The whole responsibility does not rest upon the Government: the business eoromunity must assume some of the blame, partly for neglecting to support such protests as our own, partly for approving or even advocating some of the State action which is now condemned. The case against the increasing tyranny of the State was supported by the citation of specific examples of noxious policies, and it is not surprising that the Public Trust Office was specially mentioned. There underlay some of the speeches a suggestion that relief from the tyranny of the over-implemented State can be achieved by the formation, if not of a separate political party, yet of a united body whose prime concern would be the freeing the country from the strangling grip of State Socialism. A new Party is not necessary. The present Government could, and should, take charge of the movement which the discussion at the conference shows is becoming strong and influential. If the country is to make a sound recovery it must lop away the unwholesome growths of State action, and if the present Government does not see the significance of the conference's opinion it will certainly find itself in a difficult and perilous situation.