THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1923. THE FUNCTION OF COMMERCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18563, 22 November 1923, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1923. THE FUNCTION OF COMMERCE

'..■:-.,_•—',, ',<», y ,',;••;• -,-.;:■ The annual conference of the Asso ciated. Chambers of Commerce has at its very opening session, providet the community with food for serioui thought. In the address of welcom< by the Mayor and in the presiden tial address of Mr. . H. W. Hudsoi specific reference was made to dis quieting elements manifest in th< Dominion's industrial and commer cial life; and in those comments albeit uttered in an assembly taking primarily, the business man's poini of view, there was inevitable allu. sion to conditions beyond the immediate purview of the conference. When the problems of the day are faced as fairly and as frankly as both Mr. Gun*on and Mr. Hudson are obviously eager to face them, it is found that various interests interlock. Neither the* business man nor the farmer can do any valuable thinking in thought-tight compartments. To do the Auckland Chamber justiceand it is doubtless typical in this of the other bodies* represented at the conference—it has i from time to time given proof of a < concern for the general welfare of the community and taken practical steps toward the remedying of ills 1 to which the whole Dominion is J heir. Among these are certain inI jurious tendencies indicated yester- ! day by both speakers addressing | the conference. Two of them are I closely related—the drift to the city j regretted by Mr. Gunson, and the | preponderance of non-producers deplored by Mr. Hudson. Concerning the drift to the city the menace is so serious as to call for reiterated alarm. New Zealand has been saved, partly by geography and partly by its early settlement at several distinct growing-points, from sharing the experience of Australia, where the total population of some States is now chiefly congregated in a single city. Sydney holds 42.89 per cent, of the people j of New South Wales. Melbourne has 50.09 of Victoria's total. Adelaide and Perth have respectively 51.63 and 47.04 of their States' populations. Yet yin New Zealand the position is bad enough to arouse j apprehension, and it grows steadily worse. Over one-third of the Dominion's population is found in the four principal cities, and nearly j one-half is in these and the eleven | secondary urban areas taken... toj gether. For a : country cardinally | adapted for agricultural and pasi toral activities this ratio is indeed deplorable. It means that New Zealand is becoming increasingly topheavy in urban development. The disproportion V between primary i producers and those engaged in commerce—Mr. Hudson's statement- is '< that less than one-seventh of ; our population is engaged in our primary industries, on which we are dependent for something like 95 per cent, of our national income—is inseparably associated with this urban drift; They are but two facets of one fact. /Hudson evinced an inclination, however, to emphasise I the implication of this disproportion between primary producers and : commercial workers less than the unfavourable ratio of "unoccupied" ! people to the producers in the com- ! munity. ; These ' " unoccupied " including children over ten years of age, wives and daughters of " occupied" persons (unless themselves; fully .or: partly occupied), those of i independent means following no occupation, pensioners and superannuated individuals, paupers and inmates of public institutions, and unemployed unskilled labourers -r-represent here, he says, 48 per cent, of the total population, as against 43 per cent, in Britain. It might be urged . that ; to > include children so young implies a possibility of employment ' rightly discountenanced ! in New Zealand, but .the age was doubtless, chosen 'in order to institute . the comparison with Britain. Housewives, top, might well object to being classified, with inmates of some public institutions, as " unoccupied." But these objections may pass, together with the questions raised by the use of the term " production" as limited to . activity expended directly in winning and transforming material goods. What strikes the thoughtful observer is ; the occurrence of the higher percentage of " unoccupied '' people in the younger country crying aloud for toilers to develop it. But, for the consideration of the conference, the • other comparison, so lightly touched by Mr. Hudson, is more intimately important. Mr. Hudson's figures may be supplemented by a comparison, - based upon the latest available figures, of England and Wales on the one hand with New Zealand on the other. There, in a country less ■. suited to primary production, the Government, defence and professional population aged ten and v upwards, represents 3.4 per cent, of the whole here, the total, including all ages, is 3.83 per cent. Taking commercial and transport workers, the percentage there is 4.9; here it is 9.89. The combined total of "nonproducers " is there equal to 9.3 per cent., here it is equal to 13.72 per cent. In England and Wales, the proportion of the commercial and transport population to the workers in primary production and manufacturing industries is 20.6 per cent. In New Zealand it is 43 per cent. The comparison is quite as striking as Mr. Hudson's statement suggests, and may well give pause to all concerned in the Dominion's well-being. There can be no shadow of doubt that even primary production requires the aid of facilities of commercial interchange, that the country needs the city. Manufactures, too, cannot propvsss without the aid of the overhead activities that commercial institutions supply. The reaching of a market is not a convenience ; it is. a necessity. .The i doing of business is an essential part of modern life. But, when all t* ia implied in this is conceded l.to the '■ city and its commercial ser- •■'\>/: - :'■■"■ '.'■'■ ■':;- ■:;. . .-', ' ..- ■ . ~'-.. .. :...- ;.. -: ■■■■;■■ ..■ "■>'■' ' ' -.: ... ■- - '■.'.- . '

vice, the fact remains that things tend to get ; sadly out of proportion. The tendency is to poise the pyramid on its apex-—with, disastrous risk. 1 There is a story of a large business whose heads of v departments.: were told by the managing direotor that the' delivery and accountancy i. branches were the most successful of; all the firm's activities. After consideration, these heads of departments, scenting a reprimand in the comment, replied by suggesting that every activity ol the business, except delivery anu accounting, should, in the interests of the firm, be closed! It is not well with the country, particularly such a country as New Zealand, when the activities of commerce get more heed than those devoted to the production of its exportable surplus, and the youth of the land are excessively attracted to shops and offices. • The conference of the Associated Chambers of Commerce has begun well by giving a place to the frank statement of the disquieting urban drift and its implications. It will do better still if it should proceed to full and practical ventilation of the issues involved.