HALT DEMANDED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20103, 24 November 1939, Page 9

HALT DEMANDED

LABOUR POLICY “DICTATOR” PLANS LEGISLATION ASSAILED / CITY BUSINESS MEN DOMINION-WIDE DRIVE (Pur Pross Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Further outspoken criticism of the present legislative policy, particularly in the economic sphere, was made at a largely-attended meeting of Auckland business men, when a report was received from a committee set up several weeks ago to consider the best means of bringing the numerous complaints of the commercial community before the Government.

Proposals for doing this by means of a representative national delegation after Christmas were outlined, but the details of the scheme were not made public.

In opening the meeting the chairman, Mr. Howie, reviewed the various circumstances which had given rise to the original meeting and to the formation of the committee to lake action. He reiterated the point that the business men attending would yield second place to no one in their loyalty to the King and the Empire and that their uppermost, thought would be co-operation with the Government to enable New Zealand to play a worthy part in tile present war. It was regrettable, however, that the Government, by its policy, should shatter the prospects of co-operation. Lack of Confidence “Neither at Home nor abroad is there any confidence in our present Government,” he said. “The sterling funds continue at a low ebb, the bothersome restrictions of import control have not brought any worthwhile results, the figures recently published show that the withdrawals from the Post Office Savings Bank have been mounting at an alarming rate and this process has been going on for months. The Government cannot describe its own Post Office Savings Bank as a ‘gangster institution.’ We cannot possibly expect any improvement in our economic situation unless and until the Government itself has decided to call a halt in its experimental legislation for the complete socialisation of the Dominion and until it also decides to rescind those measures that are crushing industry and destroying the whole commercial Structure of the country.”

Requests by Industries

Saying lac was speaking in a personal capacity, Mr. W. J. Roach, a member of the special committee, said that in investigating Government interference in local marketing he had been amazed at the extent to which the industries that were now complaining were responsible for their own troubles. In many cases it was they who asked the Government to interfere.

“I freely admit that in taking control the Government went altogether too far and badly messed the iob up in a number of glaring cases,” he said, "but by providing the Government with pretexts—often flimsy—to step in, some of us deserve all we are getting.” Mr. Roach urged that no similar action of this nature would 'be taken until the committee was able to bring Dominion-wide pressure to bear in an effort to persuade the Government to “ease up on its dictator programme.” Boycott Suggestion

Mr. S. B. Macdonald said that in view of the radio activities of the director of commercial broadcasting, Mr. C. G. Scrimgeour, he felt it was the bounden duty of all right-thinking people in Auckland to refuse to buy any article advertised over IZB. He noticed that a meeting of farmers had decided to make a similar request When the farmers, who were the backbone of the country, were described by Mr. Scrimgeour as “Public Enemy No. 3,” then it was about rime he was told to get off the air or he would be put off. At the conclusion of the meeting a resolution was passed to the effect that all present, representative of wide city and country interests, completely approved of the steps so far taken by the committee and endorsed the procedure set out. Future support and co-operation was also pledged.