ECONOMIC CONFERENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 16 October 1923, Page 4

ECONOMIC CONFERENCE

'..Mercantile Gazette.)

The Imperial Conference has opened and the, delegates have been welcomed and feted, and they have gone through their patriotic stunts, and in a day or two they will probably settle down to business'. As the various delegates have their own publicity officers with them it is to be hoped that these officers will come to some reciprocal arrangement so that New Zealand is not flooded with Mr Massey’s opinions 4 ,ud oratory to the exclusion of the views of the other delegates, for we believe that these representatives of other overseas Dorn in ions are as capable as Mr Massey, and that their views mid opinions will be well worth considering. At the opening of the Conference there was a debate on Imperial preference, and Mr Mackenzie King, the Canadian Prime Minister, advocated the removal of Government control of industry as far as possible, so as to enable the movement of men and money throughout the Knipiie to bo more free. -Most people will agree that this is essential if there is to be any co-operation on the part ol the various sections of the Km pi re. This mania for Government control and for Government interference with trade, industry, and commerce is ;l legacy ol the war, and is most pronounced in those countries where the Government has held office continuously, as in the case of Xcu- Zealand. The Massey Government has been labouring under the delusion that war-time conditions are suitable lor ponce times, hence no have the embargo on wheat and flour, and compulsory control ol meat and Jairv produce.

While the various overseas Dominious have expressed their desire to develop inter-Empire trade, they have all, without exception, erected barriers at the Customs which arc calculated to hamper rather than develop trade. Australia has a high tariff which hits New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa ; New Zealand’s tariff hits the others, and so does the Canadian and South African tarilis, and these tariffs have been brought into operation since the armistice. New | Zealand’s embargo on flour and wheat i-> the New Zealand politician’s example of fraternity and goodwill, for a New Zealander to import; wheat and flour from Australia is to lay himself open to severe penalties, ami all because the Government desire to maintain wheat and flour at a fictitious level, so that a few individuals may benefit at the cost of the entire nation. A Government that is responsible for such a condition of affairs cannot honestly advocate co-operation within tile Empire. Then under the Meal Control Board we have had an outcry against the Vestey Bros., good British subjects and as patriotic ns any of those in Now Zealand who arc for ever vaunting their patriotism in public because they offered to purchase the Poverty Bay Farmers’ .Meat Company’s works. The .Meat Hoard was urged to exorcise its powers of compulsion and prevent the sale, and the Minister of Agriculture was also appealed to. Does it not seem humiliating that a British subject cannot make an ordinary business deal with other British subjects in a British Dominion without the Government wanting to control and regulate ami interfere in the business? Vestey fires, offered a price for the worKs which the mortgagee was and is willing to accept, and for this there has been a good deal of noise and some very unpleasant things have been -aii: V.boui the British linn.

It is time Lhe people of New Zealand ceased to be childish. The paternalism of the Government is weakening the moral fibre of the community. If suits tile Government of the day to have the people look to it for sperm! favours-—it helps to keep the party ill power—lmt that sort of tiling o under 111 ini 11 :r the independence of tile people We want less Government interference in commercial alfairs, and men and money should be enabled to more freely throughout the Kmpiro. Wo want oLhers like Vestey lire-, to come along and develop this country of ours with their money and their brains. Hut, while tie have Meat Cimtrui Boards, and Dairy Control Boards, and embargo on the import of one commedity and restrictions on the export of another we "ill never altiact capital to this country in the vloume necessary to secure its lull and adequate development. W lint Mr Mackenzie King is advocating is that lie l control of industry should be allotveu to remain in the hands of the people wlio have put their Imrd-earned capital into it. Premier .Mussolini, who before the war was the editor of a Sociah-t paper, recently stated: "It is my e.ne \ietioii that a Government which wants clearly to uplift its own people from the after-war crisis must give free ptu\ to private enterprise and forego any measure of State control or State paternalism which may perhaps sari-fy the demagogues, but, as shown by experience, will in the long run turn out tu lie absolutely fatal hot 1? to the interest and the economic development of the country. . . . One of me greatest historical experiences which has unfolded itself under our own ey<■« has clearly demonstrated that all svs loins of associated economy wh. I, avoid free initiative and individual t.i pulse fall more or less piteously in a short lapse of time.”