The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY. MARCH 19, 1927. LESS GOVERNMENT IN BUSINESS.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 March 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY. MARCH 19, 1927. LESS GOVERNMENT IN BUSINESS.

A year and more after Mr Coates surged into Parliament with a sweeping majority on a wave created hy main slogans, but notably "less Government in business, more business in Government,” we have the retiring President of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, a locality whence the Government has drawn so much of its political strength, reflecting oil the "activities of the legislature in the sphere of business.” The gentleman in question in his valedictory address to the Chamber, concluded a very entertaining speech as follows: “If the Government will legislate more for business than at it. the recovery of the Dominion position will lie the more rapid. There has been far too frequent Government interference with business. We are being hedged about more and more with restrictions and regulations. Almost every year some private enterprise is encroached upon or stifled by legislative action. This sort'of thing cannot continue. The shook to initiative, the irritation, the slowing up of work, to say nothing of the expense on the part of the Government itself, is wasteful, and spoils our chance of recovery.

■•|,et the Government keen out of business, let cadi of ns address himself with i-oniiihni-e am! application to that work which nature or i iicunistanci s inis marked out for him. and 1 believe we will quickly login to move along the road to the recovery of that buoyancy in business which is so very desirable. The Prime Minster, it would appear, has still to make good on the slogan reiVnvil lo nkovo. n lie i>» >iii deem him sc 11 in the eyes id a great Indy of the electors. The effect of Government interlereiiee in business utl'aifs is plainly indicaL d in the foregoing, and V. lien we Uml hi- close l riuiitls in iliat quarter aniauuivtM’i i wo may Ik* mho there is. M)ine reason tor it. Ilte -moke screen indicates tire. A third of the term of Parliament has passed and it is for the Prime Minister to make good on his platform promises. He must needs assert hiuisell \ei\ boldly. The knot which he lias tied himself with batter control is a ease ill point, lie finds himself impotent IO deal with a Roald which he knows Was pill suing a w rung policy w orse, a disastrous uolicv as the sequel makes lilt too plain. To secure some retraction of the Roald's policy Mr Con K-s must have had a troublesome time, and is now. as a matter ol lad. being pilloried by the ( bail man ol Ihe Rout'd, so he is in. the uneninfortahlo position of standing between two (ires, and cannot escape scat bless. It was

one thill: to be domiti.aul in war l into when everything had to he sacri.ieed to pave the way lo victory, but it is quite another thing to endeavour to pursue a similar dominant policy in peace time when the conditions are normal and intercourse free. To seek to control business when the laws of supply and demand operate independently of individual countries, is to attempt the impossible. It cannot he done successfully. There is failure ahead, and it overtakes from unexpected quarters. The theoretical side of control sounds all very well, and in the tils-

stract it is a very line system il it can be brought about, but practice of socialistic ideals is another matter, and there is always the other side, the unknown quantity, to anticipate. With all the antieiuation of the Control Roard it lacked the final force to carry it.s no!iev through. But il failed at the deciding point, and its failure does not touch the Hoard as seriously as it touches the farmers, who are the dupes of the occasion. I hey have to pay. or rather have lo go'witliout adequate Daymen! for their produce, because of the bungling effort to control the price of ({notations in the open market, ft is one tiling to fix a price and another to get it. That is the experience of the daily trader in the open, market. What affects tin- individual trader, affects also the collective trader and is now being realised to the full. The Government must accept the major blame for the control methods, for it sanctioned the policy. In doing so it meddled with the course of business. The Government will receive much odium for its attitude and line of policy, and it is to be hoped the outcome will be such a lesson that the slogan of the 192."> noil, “less Government in business” will become a reality in good time and justify the Ministry at the 1928 poll.