The Guardian (And Evening star,with which is in-Corporate the west coast Times.) TUESDAY, AUGUST 21th. 1923 THE GOVERNMENT INDICTED

Hokitika Guardian, 21 August 1923, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening star,with which is inCorporate the west coast Times.) TUESDAY, AUGUST 21th. 1923 THE GOVERNMENT INDICTED

In another column to-day wo publish an article from the. Mercantile Gazette — the well-known weekly financial journal of the Dominion -on the subject of '‘State Interference in Business.” Following our comment of yesterday on the subject- of State interfeience with industry through the Forest Service Department, the article is of particular interest, and indicates the general trend of the policy of the present Government. The interest will he the deeper from the fact that on the purely political aspect the Mercantile Gazette was distinctly pro-Keform, justifying its political bent by the desire to keep out Extreme Labour with its Bolshevik tendencies! It will lie seen from tho opening sentence of the quoted article that the Mercantile Gazette now ‘'directs attention to the dangerous and almost Bolshevik character cf recent legislation, and the high handed methods adopted by the Government” etc. There is thus a rude awakening taking place, which makes the time all the more opportune for the sawmilling industry to put its case before the country, and point directly to the policy cf the State Service which endangers the industry by the confiscatory methods proposed, both by the existing statute law and the further policy of the Department ns outlined in the anT'"rl renort- of the Director The finaripaper phich yrd have referred to in.es me clanger and risk of the Government policy affecting meat export control and allied subjects affecting the farming class, and considers that the Meat Control Board has “wide powers of compulsion, coercion, and can practically exercise powers of confiscation.” journal sees in this extraordinary legul status gruve danger, and is alarra-

ed accordingly. The unfortunate part is that in relation to the snwuiilling industry the State Forest Service has powers of compulsion and coercion, and is exercising powers of confiscation already. The damage is being done lioiv. The danger is very real, hawmilling as an enterprise for spirited development is finite- a thing of the past. To-day, it would not be possible to launch a project of any size calculated to assure industrial stability, and employment over a term of years. Yet what the Dominion needs at this juncture (us the Mercantile Gazette 0111pnnsises) is "more trade and commerce and plenty of it." But so far as milling is concerned, we have restrictions imposed on expert; we have legal rights over-ridden by the forestry law ; we have insecurity of tenure (fioelmhJ as well as leasehold or a Crown grant); we have harrassing regulations and inquisitorial inspections which not only disgust enterprise, but drive capital out of the trade. The State interference with the business of sawmilling

is of the gravest interest and importance; not only to this community, 1 11 to the Dominion at large. Here, where milling is our greatest industry, and the source whence the greatest wealth is circulated throughout the district fortnight hv fortnight, the outlook is serious enough; but if upon that, large enterprises in which thousands of pounds are sunk are to he jeopardised and their value cut down, the properties in fact being not in favor with the investing public, then trading throughout the Dominion will be dislocated very seriously and the leaetiou will have its effect over many classes and trades of the country. Important portions’ of both Islands of New Zealand are involved in the impending catastrophe if the present | olicy of dangerous State interference is not anested in time, it is time for those most di.eetly concerned to assert theniseilves in no unmistakable way, for unless there is concerted action now, with Parliament sitting, it might soon tic too late to voice a protest, which as a matter of fact, should now he resounding from oik- end of the Dominion to the other. -