Circulating the Economists' Report.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20494, 12 March 1932, Page 14

Circulating the Economists' Report.

When it issued the report of the Committee of Economists the Government deleted two sections based on information it preferred to regard as confidential, but promised that they would rjc released with a special financial statement at an early date. This should mean that the Report will shortly be reprinted in its completed form, and before this is done it would be worth the Government's while to consider making some effort to circulate the report among the public. An effort is necessary, because New Zealanders have not acquired the habit of reading Parliamentary papers for the very good reason that our Parliamentary papers are seldom worth reading. But the report of the Committee of Economists is an exception; it is the first coherent account we have had of the depression, and if it were bound more adequately than it is at present, and put on sale in bookshops at a price sufficient to cover the cost of printing, it would !>? sure to find its way into the hands of many people who would not take the trouble to write to Wellington for t. c-oipy.* to allow the Report to sink into the swift oblivion that is the fate of most Parliamentary papers in this country would be to neglect a great opportunity, for in the difficult and unpopular tasks ahead of it the Government can have no greater asset than a widespread knowledge of the facts of our economic situation. It is worth remembering that in England more bulky and far more technical Parliamentary papers have had a wide circulation and have profoundly influenced public opinion. The Poor Law Report of 1832, for example, the report of Chadwick's Health of Towns Commission, and the two Poor Law Reports of 2909 are still widely read at the present lime, while the Report of the Simon Commission sold freely on railway bookstalls and had a circulation running into six figures.