WHALING AND WEALTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 16, 20 January 1931, Page 6

WHALING AND WEALTH.

It is reported from Norway that the estimated value of the Antarctic whaling catch for the season ending in March is £14,000,000. These prodigious returns suggest that the very, existence of the Antarctic whale is>- s imperilled. The Norwegians realise this danger, and they are co-operating to secure close seasons for various areas in turn. Meantime our Norwegian friends, by their energy and enterprise, have opened up for themselves, a great source of wealth which New Zealand and Australia might have exploited, to the exclusion of all foreign competition, if only foresight and initiative had not been lacking on this side of the world. This is a humiliating reflection, and it suggests that through lack of enterprise and "vision" we may be ignoring other potential sources of vast wealth of a similar character in the seas that wash our shores. No systematic attempt has ever yet been made on a large scale to exploit the oceanic resources of the Dominion, and the success of the Norwegian whalers may serve us at once as an encouragement and a warning.