AN INDUSTRIAL AUTOCRAT

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 2, 18 January 1937, Page 4

AN INDUSTRIAL AUTOCRAT

Last week the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, Minister o£ Industries and Commerce, ahnounced the personnel of the Bure&u of Industry which is to function in terms of the Industrial Efficiency Act passed last session. The statute itself directs thut the Bureau shal] eoiisist of siich number of "ordinary" and of PIspeciai" members as the Minister may think fit to appoint. In his seilection df "ordinary" members he is restricted to "persons employed in the ser7ice of the Government, being persons who in his opinion are possessed of some special knowledge or qualifications that will be of advantage to the Bureau in the performanc^ of its functions." The "special" members are to be appointed two to represent the manufacturing industries, two to represehit agricultural and pastoral industries, and, should occasion arnse, two to represent any particular industry or group of related industries and two to represent the wdrkers engaged therein. The Minister has cbosen, for a sfeirt, to appoint no less than ten "ordinary" members, all drawn fcom different departments of the Public Service, thus conferring upon them, as was no doubt infcended from the first, a thoroughly controlling say in the decisions of the Bureau. To represent the manufacturers as special members he has appointed the presid^nt and another member of the Wellington Manufacturers ' Association, and to represent the farmers he has nominated the secpetary of the New Zealand Dairy Board and Mr. Hugh Morrison, oi Wairarapa, All these, members, it is to be noted, are to hold office only during the pleasure of the Minister/' who may thus at any time cancel the appointmeiit of any member who ventures to entertain opinions that are not quite in keeping with his own ideas. Thus may they not call their souls their own. Leaving that aside for the present, we have here set out the present constitution of the tribunal with which, according to the provision of the Act, it will lie, in the first instance, to say whether a licence is to be granted for carrying on any "industry" which the Minister may, at his own sole discretion, require to be so licensed. What tbe business public have particularly to note is that, for the purposes of the Act, the term "industry" includes "any trade, occupation, business, manufacture, works or service of any kind whatsoever." Thus there is no undertaking, enterprise or venture, be it industriai, oommercial, financial or exploratory, already existing or yet to be brought into existence, which cannot, at the unfettered will of the Minister, be brought wlthin the operation of the licensing sections of the Act. Already Mr. SuHivan has proclaimed quite a good few industries and businesses over which the Bureau is to exereise this control. Then, from the decisions or recommendations of this Bureau, whose members are completely under Mr. Sullivan 's heavy thnmb, there is no possible appeal excepting to Mr. Sullivan himself. The Bureau has, of course, other functions besides that of acting as a licensing authority, but it is in that respect we have specially to note this piece of autocratic and inquisitorial legislation, virtually setting up a petty personal distatorship such as, in its little way, puts Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin to blushing shame. This is no extravagant interpretation of this most astounding piece of legislation, passed by an elective Parliament in a country which makes great profession of adherence to democratic principles. There are no fine points about the wording of this Act that leave room for lawyer's quibbles as to what it means. It is there in plain and easily understood English which any inteliigent citizen can figure out for himself, and he will find that he can make nothing less of it than has been above set out. By it the whole of the business activities of the country have been placed under the control, wlienever he cares to exrcise it, of the one man, the Minister of Industries and Commerce, who for the nonce is the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, the sponsor' of the Act.