HELPING INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 February 1921, Page 5

HELPING INDUSTRY.

PART PLAYED BY THE STATE. TO REGULATE AND CONTROL, By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. 'At the Industries Conference, Mr. McDonald (chairman of the Board of Trade) outlined the relation of the Department of Industries and Commerce to the industries of New Zealand. He quoted the Prime Minister’s declared policy of encouraging industries by making use of raw materials and establishing ironworks so as to avoid disadvantageous trade balances. The Department of Industries and Commerce was conceived and designed to play the same part in relation to secondary industries which the Department of Agriculture played toward the agricultural industry. The public was apt to think from what it saw of its activities that the primary purposes of the board were to deal with trade and profiteering, but that was not so. The primary functions were to prevent unfair trade, to the prejudice of New Zealand’s industries; to prevent and suppress combines; to establish maximum or minimum prices or rents; and, chief of all, to regulate and control the industries “in any manner whatsoever.” The limit of the department’s powers might be said to be the economic welfare of New Zealand.

One of the methods of rendering service to the which the department had in view was to insist on industries being conducted on a basis of complete publicity, except in exceptional cases. Industry, he said, is entitled to receive from the State every encouragement, but the State is entitled to full information as to the conditions prevailing in those industries. Trade is not a war in which information must at all costs be kept from the enemy He explained the benefits of such publicity, and the method proposed to be followed in getting full reports by the department. Full publicity would keep down the allegations that might be made as to unfair exploitation. It would, he added, be like the light in the street, which is the best policeman. Publicity about industry would afford facts on which they could build a safe foundation for society. He concluded by a request to all industrialists to place all the facts relating to their respective industries before the board in confidence.