A Study of the Industrial Efficiency Act, 1936

Abstract

This thesis is entitled "A Study of the Industrial Efficiency Act, 1936". Beginning with a short review of legislation affecting industry in the years before 1936, a good deal of space is given to the passing of the Bill through Parliament, and the structure of the Act. The attention later given to the work done under the authority of the Act (by the Bureau of Industry set up under it) might, at first sight, appear disproportionately small. Why this study concentrates so much on the original intentions of the framers of the Act will become apparent if it is realised at the outset that the Act was a full-scale attempt to plan and license all industry, whereas in fact comparatively little was ever done under its authority. The description of the work actually done by the Bureau and its subsidiary Industrial Plan Committees is divided into two sections in Chapter 4. First of all there is a chronological account of the Bureau's work in all fields in the years 1937-1950. Then follows a section giving more detailed consideration to the work done in specific industries. The reader's attention is particularly directed to Chapter 4 B (i) dealing with the Pharmacy Plan Industrial Committee, where the procedure for establishing a Plan is set out. It is a constant temptation to write of the Bureau in the past tense, for so many of its activities belong to the past. Broadly speaking, one can discern four periods in its lifetime: First, the period between the passing of the Act in 1936, and the introduction of Import Control in 1938. Secondly, the period between the introduction of Import Control and the full impact of the War, that is, from the end of 1938 to about the end of 1940. Thirdly, the war and immediate post-war period when new ventures were almost at a standstill - from 1940 to 1946. Fourthly, the post-war period from 1946 to 1950, the beginning of which also coincides with the illness and death, in 1947, of the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, who had been Minister in charge of the administration of the Act from the time of its inception. The significance of the periods set out above is that, apart from the first, each saw complications which impinged more and more on the intended province and effectiveness of the Act. Finally, one would have expected that the National Government which took office at the end of 1949 would have had some influence on the working of the Act. Up to a year later this has not been discernable, a state of affairs for which two possible reasons are advanced:- First, the Hon. C. M. Bowden, Minister of Industries and Commerce in the first National Cabinet, was a foundation member of the Bureau of Industry. He was a keen member right throughout his time on the Bureau, and it is not to be expected that Mr. Bowden would lightly do away with the Bureau. Secondly, although the present Prime Minister, Mr. Holland, is on record as a vigorous critic of the Act, that was when it was first proposed. Although it is believed that Mr. Holland still opposes the Act in principle, it is probable that the present Government regards the Act as a relatively obscure piece of legislation which can be reviewed after more important problems are taken care of. The Act still remains effective on a very limited scale, and cognisance must be taken of this work. But in so far as the Government retained any part of its original intention to apply the Act systematically and on a large scale, it is possible to say that the period covered in this study embraces the principal application of the Industrial Efficiency Act, and it is most unlikely that it will be used in the future (at least in its present form) to carry out the work for which it was framed.