MR.MANDER REPLIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 85, 12 April 1937, Page 10

MR.MANDER REPLIES

TWO QUESTIONS FOT MINISTER

A further and final statement on the Government method of judging the efficiency, business, methods, and management of industry under the Industrial Efficiency Act has been made by Mr. A. E. Mander.

Mr. Mander said he felt that he had. performed his duty in drawing public attention to tfie evil. All he would now ask the Minister, was to answer two questions: First, did. departmental officers report upon the efficiency, business methods, and management of particular businesses and industries? Secondly, were such reports disclosed to the firms reported upon? Would the Minister- answer those questions with a plain yes or no? • In view of the attitude of the manufacturers' official spokesmen, Mr. Mander added, he would not pursue the matter further. The incident merely revealed again why the manufacturers' organisation had become so ineffective. In this case, the executives of the'federation were fully aware of the position; and even if Mr. Henry himself had forgotten all,-' the other cases, surely at least he could not have forgotten his own. For a ■portion of Mr. Henry's own industry had been condemned as uneconomic, and its tariff abolished, on the strength of a departmental officer's report which had not been disclosed to him." Mr. Mander challenged Mr. Henry to deny that. . . ■ , With regard to Mr. Higgins, Wellington, Mr. Mander said that Mr. Higgins had been a member of the Manufacturers' Federation council for exactly four days, so his lack of knowledge of its affairs was-not surprising, although it/was surprising that in the circumstances he had thought fit to make any comment. , : .