STATE INTERFERENCE IN TRADE DEPLORED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 388, 23 June 1928, Page 13

STATE INTERFERENCE IN TRADE DEPLORED

BUSINESS MEN COMBINE ADDRESSES IN AUCKLAND The 1928 Committee, an organisation set up “to combat Government and bureaucratic interference and unfair competition with private enterprise,” is extending its activities, and this week representatives addressed and secured the hearty co-operation of Auckland business men. Tracing the history of the committee, Mr. J. B. Mac Ewan said that it was th© result of a conference held in October when members had strongly protested against State and publicbody competition with private enterprise. and had called for the repeal of special legislation which curtained and interfered with legitimate private enterprise. “The movement,” said Mr. MacEwan, “is broadly national. We have decided to cut out all party politics and no effort will be made to make it political in any shape or form.” Mr. Paterson supplemented the previous speaker’s appeal for unity and persistence. “These difficulties have been going on for years,” he stated. “They have been taken up by the sectional interests involved, with the Government in power, and each separate interest has tried to get the position remedied. I think I am safe in saying that no single interest has succeeded in getting an adjustment of difficulties and injustice. The differences between these individual efforts and the 1928 Committee movement i* that we are going to shoulder one anothers’ burdens.” Mr. H. T. Merritt, president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, who presided, said the objects of the committee would be endorsed by every member of the chamber. A resolution was passed deploring the increase of State interference in private enterprise. It was resolved to co-oprate with the committe, and arrangments werß mad© for the setting up of a sub-committee in Auckland.