TOO MUCH GOVT.

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 412, 22 December 1932, Page 5

TOO MUCH GOVT.

(Press Assn

STATE INTERFERENCE OVER LEGISLATION IS HANDICAP TO BUSINESS STRONG GRITICISM

. — By Telegraph — Copyright)

Wellington, Wednesday. Mr. Burgess, chairman of the Associated Chambers of Commerce in a statement to-day, said the fact must be faced that more harm than good was being done by legislation interposing the State in private contracts. However pressing the situation and | however great the justification the 1 legislators of the country considered | to be theirs in making th'ose laws, it [ should be clearly indicated that they are of i purely temporary nature, and should be cancelled at the earliest possible opportunity. Mr. Burgess said the legislation, while of some immediate benefit to certain farmers destroyed the confidence of investors in mortgages and made it harder than ever for members of the farming community as a whole to .arrange finance for carrying on.. This must necessarily follow interference with inevitable 'economic processes. "It is evident that the general public is looking to the Parliamentary machine to legislate us into better times," said Mr. Burgess. "I wish to stress on behalf of my assoeiation, that this is altogether wrong. The new statutes for such a purpose are of no use, because if the statutes interfere further with • natural economic processes they will be not merely useless but definitely injurious. Should Cease to Interfere n "The most the commercial lcommunity hopes for, and the most constructive prop'osal it can urge for the pui-pose of economic reconstruction, is that Parliament cease to interfere with trade, industry and commerce. The business world is endeavouring to carry on not with the help of what Parliament does, but in spite of what Parliament does. "The powers of Parliament have been widely uSed beyond the proper sphere and it is time the country realised that individual endeavour is the mainspring of trade and prosperity. "We ara confronted with circumstances which can be surmounted only by the determined process of individual adjustment to conform to the reduced national and private income, an adjustment that is still going on quietly and unobstrusively in private business. This remedy may be unattractive and even painful, hut it is the only remedy. There ara. two things Parliament can do — stop borrowing and reduee expenditure. There are many recommendations made by the National Expenditure Commission which have not yet been adopted. Beyond that the country needs a legislative holiday, in order that we may be enabled to get on with our job."