ECONOMICS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 6 December 1930, Page 21

ECONOMICS

FROM A.LOCAL ANGLE

"Outlines of Economics," by Professor B. E. Murphy (Whiteombo and ! Tombs, Ltd.). ■Tliis work has long been the standard text book on the subject for New Zealand, and in this edition Professor Murphy has taken the opportunity to bring the treatment of banking currency and exchange into line -with the stabilisation now effected in all important countries, and has made a number of other alterations in matter: and emphasis to correspond with existing economic conditions here and abroad. The author has devoted more attention in this edition, which is virtually a new work and entirely re-arranged, to the local and practical aspects of the subject, and is evidently aiming at catering for the business public as well as the university student. The sections dealing with State activity, taxation, and expenditure have been considerably expanded, while useful information is given on such recent developments as export control, rationalisation, standardisation, and unemployment. Professor Murphy has not materially changed his general social, point of view since the first: edition of the work some years ago, and perhaps this is not surprising. He accepts the existing capitalistic organisation of society 'as inevitable, if not perfect, and shows little enthusiasm for social innovations. He is however not sparing in criticism of the vulnerable features of the existing regime. Por example: Fashion represses personality at a point where its" expression is desirable, the rational satisfaction accruing from wealth is cancelled out in the futile competitive struggle, and art is corrupted. When the best work lasts but a day, there will be little or no very good work. For the.idle rich he is no "advocate: ~-. •.The-p.rcsen-t leisured class cannot be justified as being a vehicle of 'culture,'rather the reverse. Cultureat the present time is largely built, .up and transmitted by. persons of active occupation. The leisured class is to a considerable extent devoted to the*, exploitation- of leisure, to a futile round of "social duties," and to the strenuous pursuit :of equally futile forms of sport. It demoralises the rest of the community by setting before it a poor social ideal. « The book abounds ■with caustic and uncomfortable passages of the like nature. While the author delights in stripping the varnish from current cant, he has .little real sympathy with social reform. It is significant that the strongest and most original portions,of the work are the introductory sections on method and outlook, and the later portions dealing with finance and banking. The principal merit of the work is the conscious and careful weaving together of economic theory and local conditions. The illustrations of doctrine are drawn from New Zealand conditions; and such problems as banking and- exchange, unemployment and wages, demand and supply, taxation and expenditure are treated as New Zealand problems. - The final result ia to giye us for the first time a full and considered review of economic phenomena from the Dominion angle. Most tests available- for Now Zealand students are written in England or the United States, and thus throw little light on tho economics of an isolated, heavily borrowing, primary producing country like New Zealand. ' ■ The treatment though caustic is impartial, and if the author sometimes leaves us wondering just what his own opinions are, this in itself is a. proof of the objective treatment so necessary in the handling of controversial, social, and economic problems in a scientific spirit. This work should be welcomed as a valuable critical treatment of those fundamental economic problems that are so important in the life of the Dominion to-day.