SOCIAL LEGISLATION

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24907, 21 June 1946, Page 4

SOCIAL LEGISLATION

NEED SEEN FOR PRIOR RESEARCH “The Press" Special Service

WELLINGTON, June 20. The need for expert examination of social legislation, to determine its practical and remote consequences, before it was recommended to the country or put into operation, was emphasised by the president, Mr W. J. Sim, K.C., in a reference to the research activities of the National Party during his address to the annual conference of the party. "To-day the system is an impulsive hit -or miss affair, progress by trial and error alone ” he said. “In the interests of leisure, hours of work are shortened, working days curtailed. No research accompanies the changes In any kind of scientific endeavour to plot what will happen, nor is any particular consideration given as to whether legislation, good in itself, is appropriate to the particular moment when it is brought in. In consequence we see an acute shortage of goods, the necessity for increased prices, shopping queues, and an exasperated community. As far as I can see, no real research accompanies present social legislation; and as long as it confers immediate benefit upon somebody that is a sufficient test of its usefulness. The toifchstone of the general public interest does not seem to be applied.”