ECONOMIC POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1935, Page 8

ECONOMIC POLICY.

INDUSTRIES, IMMIGRATION. LAND SETTLEMENT URGED. The questions of migration and of industries of New Zealand which might be developed were discussed by the Auckland branch of the Royal Empire Society last evening. Mr. G. M. Hart Smith, who has been in persona] touch with the Empire Development Land Settlement Committee, dealt with the possibility of developing the fishing industry in Now Zealand, and instanced the success of fishiii"- in Japan, which supported a huge population. He considered that with British capital, under the aegis of the Royal Empire Society, there was prospect* of great development in New Zealand. If it were possible then in conjunction with the industry settlers could be placed on small farms around the coast. He pointed out that Australian trawlers came right over to the New Zealand coast for fish. The Hon. C. J. Carrington said that New Zealand was primarily a producing country, but since 19"20 they had been endeavouring to turn it into an industrial country by encouraging people to come to the towns. He quoted a Chinese philosopher who said that the root and stem of the tree of production was agriculture. In Xew Zealand the secondary and tertiary industries were based on the primary industries and as they in turn were based on the land agriculture should be encouraged more than had been the case in the past. He did not oppose secondary industries, because the interests of town and country were interdependent, and one could not succeed without the other, but an endeavour should bo made to create a psychology amongst people in favour of a return to the land policy. In the opinion of many people a serious mistake had been made by basing New Zealand economic policy on that of England, the greatest industrial country in the world, with the result that economic thought followed that of the English economists.