1928 COMMITTEE

Hokitika Guardian, 23 February 1929, Page 7

1928 COMMITTEE

INTERVIEW WITH PiUME MINISTER.

Tho delegates, having completed the Ini.siiiess tor which they were called together, adjourned at 3.30 p.m., and l>y arrangement waited upon tlic Prime .Minister, the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, in the Cabinet Room at Parliament House, to place before him briefly the aims and objects of the Committee.

The Chairman, having introduced his tellow delegates to the Minister, congratulod \Joseph Ward upon Having attained again the position ot Prime Minister ol the Dominion. The members of the Nineteen Twenty-eight Committee, lie said, while eschewing party politics so fas as their association with tiie Committee was. concerned, realised that they had at the head of tho Hominion’s affairs a business man with a commercially trained brain who would readily understand the problems they might be permitted to place before him from time to time. Tho Committee had been formed after two representative conferences between business, commercial and professional men, and it ultimately adopted a wide constitution which sought to benefit, not only those immediately concerned in the movement, but also the whole community. No doubt, Sir Joseph was familiar with the aims and ambitions of the Committee. The Executive had sought, to make them known to all leaders of public thought, regardless of party. It had laid down that Government activities and functions, while aiming at the best possible results for tho multitude, should not bo directed against tho undertakings of individuals or groups of individuals that already were giving the best services obtainable. The Committee held that the greatest possible scope should he given to the working of the law of supply and demand and development of [individual initiative ami ability. State institutions and public bodies, whose activities flouted these fundamental principles, tho Committee maintained, cramp not only private enterprise but also national development. To the previous Government the Committee had submitted some thirty-seven cases of that kind with satisfactory results in about half of them. Tt could not bo expected that the new Government would grasp all at once the ,significance of the remaining cases. Some of them would require legislation before their evil influences could he wholly removed. That was a matter in which the Committee might he of some service to the Government. .Meanwhile, it wished Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues to understand it. was not seeking any special privileges for the business and commercial interests, but was merely asking for a fair field in which private enterprise, under proper conditions, would obtain its full rights. Mr C. P. Agar (Christchurch) said Sir Joseph Ward, having been for many years engaged in business an' 1 political activities, no doubt would appreciate as fully as any member of the deputation did the difficulty of conducting business even when unhampered by interference, and the practical impossibility of successful!v conducting business when surrounded by* interference and legislation which were restrictive and harmful. The trend of legislation, in the judgment of the Conference, during a period of years had been towards a Socialistic State, with very grave results to the community at large. -Mr Agar then traced briefly the formation, growth, and development of the Nineteen Twenty-eight Committee, acknowledging the assistance the promoters had received from tho Welfare League, and carrying his review down to tile approach of tho recent General Election, when, as he said, the Committee, being entirely' non-party, had felt that it should discontinue its activities until after'tlio decision at the polls. The (Irganisatiort lfnd reassembled that day, and it had been decided by a very large gathering of delegates that its activities should he continued. Tinobject of the deputation in waiting on tho Prime Minister was that it might oiler to provide for him a complete report of the activities of the organisation and the representations that previously had been made to Ministers, Also tho deputation wished to ask for Sir Joseph Ward’s sympathetic consideration of the disabilities under which the interests represented by the deputation had laboured in the past, and, in many cases, 'under which they were still labouring. The Conference that day bad passed flic following resolution :

“This Conference congratulates tlio Government on the recent utterances of 'Cabinet Ministers •definitely deprecating Government competition and interference with legitimate private trading and business and professional enterprise. It assumes from these utterances that there will he no extension of competition Jiy Government Departments in trading, and that the operations of such trading departments as have been shown to compete unfairly with the legitimate business of subjects ol the Stall 1 ,vill he curtailed and discontinued: also that where special control legisation and restrictive regulations exist which destroy initiative and repress enterprise in the professions, industries and business concerns ol the Dominion without any compensating advantage to the community, hut to its commercial disadvantage, these will he repealed at an early date, and the Conference assures the Government that it will give all assistance in preparing and

forwarding information to this end, if it is desired to do so.”

Mr Agar said he thought the resolution indicated that tiie Conference had a feeling of high hope as regarded the relief it might expect from the Government of which Sir Joseph \Vard was the head. In the past those concerned had sulfeiecl very severely from what might I*} termed ‘Tush legislation,” at the close of the session. It was leit that a good deal of the harmful legislation which reached the Statute Hook got through Parliament in that way. He urged that all Mills, when possible, should be presented to the business community, and to the public in general in time for them to make any representations that might deem itesirablo concerning their provisions. Mr Agar concluded by saying that under the various ‘‘control” measures some of the members of the business community bad suflered grievous harm, and that under State interference most of them had suflered loss. He hoped from Sir Joseph Ward’s very long association with business and from his knowledge of the fact that it was upon individual ellort the country must depend, that the community would obtain some relief from the hands of the Government, and some practical co-operation which would he to the advantage of the Dominion as a whole.

Sir Joseph Ward, in replying to tho representations made to him, expressed his appreciation of the brevity and lucidity of the two excellent speeches to which ho had listened. He was very glad indeed to meet so large and representative a body of business and professional men. and to hear what they had to say in regard to the grave questions which should be occupying the attention of the whole community. Whether his term of office was to be long or short—a problem lie was not worrying about at the moment—it was his duty to make himself . as familiar as lie could with the needs and aspirations of the people he had to serve. In these circumstances, it was very helpful lo him to have such facts and opinions as had been placed before him by Mr Cuthbertson and Mr Agar, and it would be his business to turn them to the best account ho could. He would be very pleased indeed to have in writing, as the speakers bad kindly oficred, details of tho proposals of the Nineteen Twen-ty-eight Committee, and any further suggestions for their application. His personal feeling was that the Great War, and the new and grave problems it brought in its train, were largely responsible for the strange and difficult conditions that were besetting some of the younger countries. He had been, comparatively lately, in the tfnited Stales of America and in Canada, and from personal observation and inquiry in those countries lie was driven to the opinion that they were not suffering nearly so much from the aftermath of the war as were New Zealand, and, of course, the Mother Country. In the other countries he had mentioned there had been tremendous prosperity in their commercial life, and he was satisfied that New Zealand, whoever its rulers might be, would have to institute a policy ol enterprise and courage before it would definitely enjoy the measures of commercial security and general prosperity those other countries possess. Towards this end the whole community should he working in harmony, capital recognising the dues of labour, and labour recognising the needs of capital. Candour and harmony between these two great sections of producers were the first factors towards a- prosperous nation. He was satisfied that many of the business people in New Zealand for quite a long time had been suffering encroachments from one source and another that were not in the host interests of the community. Tlic Mother Country had been suffering in tlie same way, as the result of war conditions, blit the people there had begun to realise that what may be permissible, or even desirable, in circumstances of emergency, may he flagrantly undesirable when normal conditions were restored. He was not moving in this matter from any personal standpoint, individually or politically but solely from a social and national standpoint which demanded such services as he had to give. He could not with justice to Parliament go into tho subject as fully as he might otherwise have done, hut he thought he might without any impropriety point to the incongruity of a man in business paying all the taxation that was going while some State Department close by in the same line ol business paid neither income tax nor land tax, and traded on cheap State money. No one could make him think that in any of the cities of New Zealand it was a fair thing for municipalities to compete against inte-payers in their own town when the municipalities paid no license, no income tax, no land lax. and no rates in the premises occupied He wanted to make it perfectly plain to the deiputaU i‘>n that—though he might not succeed in doing so—lie was seeking to do the fair thing to tho farmers of tho country, the fair thing to the workers, and Hie fair thing to the business people. Until there was a mutual recognition of the rights and desserts of every parly, the progress and development of tlic Dominion would he more or less retarded. Alter bri> fly referring to railway construction and land settlement, by way of illustrating his general policy, Sir Joseph returned to the question of State interference to say that it was one of the problems that had been con fronting him in one way and another during the last 17 or 18 years. He hoped, with the assistance of his colleagues, the members of all sections, of tho House and the fair-minded pnb lb-, to reach a solution of the problem in the near future. He would be pleas-

ed to have any further information the Committee lmd to supply, and it.-, assistance in removing the problem as far as possible from the disrupting influences of party politics.