PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 10, 7 October 1943, Page 4

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

Election Advertisement Contradicted

A statement was made by the president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, Mr. W. H. Hindle, at a ni6etin>g of th© council of tlie duim-ber this week, in refutation of an advertisement published during the Prime Minister’s election campaign, in wlncli it was stated that “Private enterprise means ■unemployment.” Mr. Hindle said it was with great regret that he had seen the advertisement, which reflected on the business community. The policy of the chamber was to steer clear of party politics, but when a candidate for Parliament published an incorrect statement which vitally concerned business people it was the chamber’s duty to refute it regardless of the political opinions of the candidate concerned. Tlie statement that private enterprise meant unemployment was contrary to fact. Tlie British Empire had ’been built on the system of private enterprise, and as recently as last March Mr. Winston Churchill had said in a broadcast speech to the nation: “We must beware of trying to buitct a society in which nobody counts for anything except a politician or an official a society where enterprise gams no reward, and thrift no privileges. The modern 'State will increasingly concern itself with tlie economic wellbeing of the nation, but it is Jill the more vital to revive at the earliest moment a widespread, healthy and vigorous private enterprise, without which we shall never be able to provide, in the years when it is needed, the employment for our soldiers, sailors and airmen to which they are entitled after their duty has been done.” “All fair-minded people will agree with Mr. Churchill in what he said on that occasion,” Mr. Hindle continued. “State control and rule by officials breed inefficiency, delay, frustration, and ultimately will destroy initiative, which is the only road to progress. I say without fear of contradiction tliat the best interests and future welfare of New Zealand people He in a continuance of the necessary freedom whereby individuals can exercise initiative and engage in every form of endeavour under a system that encourages private enterprise. “This ensures prosperity for the pconle. and when a people is prosperous' the State obtains a share in the results by way of taxation. Tn the process ihe people are provided with more and more employment, and this is proof that the claim made by the Prime Minister in the advertisement which I have drawn attention to is absolutely contrary to fact. . “I refrained from making this protest sooner, so as to avoid any chance of being accused of being party political I would make this .protest regardless of the political colour of whoever made such a statement, but I feel it is the duty of tlie chamber of commerce to refute what was said in the advertisement referred to.”