The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1932. TRADING ACTIVITIES.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 June 1932, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1932. TRADING ACTIVITIES.

The stringent conditions prevailing in Ntew .Zealand and elsewhere at the present time, have caused the necessity of bringing the country to n fuller realisation of the extent to which

private enterprise has been pushed back by the growth of State socialisation. The State and local body trading activities have penetrated so far beyond their borders that private enterprise has been forced on to thepoorer pastures, reducing in consequence the return to the State, and the prosperity of th e Dominion as a whole. It is a disturbing but indisputable fact that the nationalisation of trading operations already has its roots well established in this country, as is shown by the operations of the State in the business of lire, life, and accident insurance, trusteeship, l b piking, mining, money-lending, transport, engineering, architecture, 'intjilding, printing, shipping, electric power supply, advertising, telephone sales, postal and telegraphic business, dentistry, irrigation/ catering, and marketing. Where is it going to stop asked a speaker recently/ and he went on to say that the departments of national and local government are in operation 1 which not merely compete with private traders, but which, because of exemption from the taxes and charges imposed on their competitors, are in a fair position to engulf them. ■ The crying injustice and the economic unsoundness of the case is that the private traders are taxed to provide funds to enable their State competitors to continue the unequal battle. There is no objection! to fair competition, but to unequal competitition; with all the resources of State h’.ignod against private enterprise, there can be only one outcome. But there is a danger ;that is greater than the distress of the actuality,” continued the speaker. ‘‘The general community, forsaking individualism, has a misplaced and tragic belief in the ability of the State to produce prosperity -by interfering in trade. These interferences only throw sand in the. machinery. This ' has been amply proven in England and elsewhere, as it is being sadly proven in New Zealand to-day. State and local government is alive with activities and the Statute Book heavy with enactments that restrict the productive ability of trade, industry, and commerce, reduce the employable, capacity of private enterprise, and penalise the taxpaying community. Too many people look to the State for everything, and the State, by pursuing a policy of eager paternalism, is spreading a suffocating cloak over production. The Associated Chambers is not antagonistic to government, but only pleads that private enterprise be the better enabled to assist in the task of economic rehabilitation by being freed from unfair competition restrictions, and regulations, and having restored to it the ability to make profits. •