N.Z.’S PROBLEMS OF GROWTH

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31221, 19 November 1966, Page 4

N.Z.’S PROBLEMS OF GROWTH

The Quest .for Security in New Zealand. Oxford University Press. 489 pp. Index. Colony or Nation? Sydney University Press. 183 pp. Index. Both by W. B. Sutch. Dr W. B. Sutch must be New Zealand’s best-known and most outspoken former bureaucrat. Until 1965 the stormy petrel of the Industries and Commerce Department, he is now an economic and industrial consultant. His earlier writings on New Zealand have been expanded mto these two books which can only enhance his reputation as scholar and author. The larger, and better, “The Quest for Security,” is a quite monumental study of neglected aspects of New Zealand’s history. Dr. Sutch’s main theme is that although New Zealand has been politically selfgoverning since 1852 it remains an economic colony and many decisions about its development are made abroad. Yet at the same time it has provided more welfare services, and more equality of opportunity, not only in law but in fact, than most countries in the world. As the book is concerned with the quest for personal, social and economic security, it must be, as the author says, “a vertical section of history, dealing with the viewpoint of the person needing the security.” The result is a highly sympathetic account of welfare services and labour movements since England’s hungry poor first began emigration to New Zealand.

Dr. Sutch concludes that while New Zealand has achieved much in terms of equality and full employment, it has failed to take the next step to a much more balanced economy and to becoming the “foremost civilisation in the South Pacific.” He leaves the impression that he is a “nation-

alist” in the sense that Sukarno and Nkrumah were, willing to sacrifice much, in spite of his deep concern for the quality of life in New Zealand, in the interests of economic independence. “The pressures of the Western world, including the International Monetary Fund, are towards dismantling the economic framework that makes greater equality of opportunity and a more balanced economy possible. These pressures, together with the internal political forces represented by grass-cropping, finance and distribution, are continuously pulling New Zealand back into the insecurity of its colonial past.” Surely this is nothing less than the Afro-Asian bogy of “Neo-colonialism” applied to New Zealand? Yet Dr. Sutch marshals his arguments

astutely and they deserve careful study. “Colony or Nation?” both develops and condenses the themes of the larger work. It consists of 12 essays, most of them based on papers and addresses prepared by Dr. Sutch during his 15 years with the Industries and Commerce Department. Many of them relate to the 1960 s and what the author calls “the problems of growth.” His able pen takes him from tourism to Maori education, and from colonial architecture to the manufacture of nylon yarn. Everywhere he has something provocative to say, and considerable evidence to back it up. As an introduction to Dr. Sutch’s thought, this is the better book, but it lacks the historical perspective and wealth of detail found in “The Quest for Security.”