Geographers’ Place In Development

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32384, 25 August 1970, Page 18

Geographers’ Place In Development

The various sector reports of the National Development Conference had “worried him a little** because of the narrowlyeconomic emphasis so apparent in some of them, said Professor W. B. Johnston, professor of geography at the University of Canterbury at the opening last evening in Christchurch of the sixth triennial conference of the New Zealand Geographical Society.

Professor Johnston, who Is president of the conference, referred to the National Development Conference as “a cold, harsh world." “The physical development conference which I attended has not completely dispelled my concern,” he told more than 280 delegates present “There persists the possibility that because a thing pays off, it will be legitimate.

As geographers, wt have a responsibility to draw attention to the fact that New Zealand is not a featureless plain, a uniform economic unit, and that to locate a steelworks has spatial implications for housing, transport, and other services.'’

The reports of the National Development Conference had called upon geographers to pay attention to such questions as the optimum use of land, labour mobility from place to place, and the location of manufacturing in relation to national development, Professor Johnston said. “I am certain that our graduates are now wellequipped to contribute relatively sophisticated analyses of problems relevant in planning—especially spatial planning—for development They can and will respond to this challenge, but we need more of them," he said. However, the relationship of the university to community and national problems was “rather a delicate matter,” Professor Johnston said. The academic would have to understand his special responsibility to the community.

“The national need in New Zealand is not for people who only propound problems. If geography is to continue to grow in stature we, as geographers, must continue to be more useful. We must prefer solving problems to propounding them.” The changing nature of geography in the 1860 s was just a prelude, for the demands of national development on geography required strenuous efforts in advancing the study of the subject, Professor Johnston said. “The theoretical and applied developments create an ever-increasing need for re-education at all levels," he said.

“In this, the teachers’ colleges have a central place in relation to the teaching profession,” Professor Johnston said, referring to the proposals before the conference for the formation of a Board of Geography Teachers. The challenge of future national development would be complex, but the growth of greater links between the various academic disciplines and more involvement with the community would ensure a success marked bv reevaluation of each other’s roles.