Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, FEB. 9, 1929. N.Z. DEVELOPMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16873, 9 February 1929, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, FEB. 9, 1929. N.Z. DEVELOPMENT

The very brief but also very comprehensive summary of the development of New Zealand industry published in the N.Z. National Review and written by Mr, J. Sutherland Ross, president of the N.Z. Manufacturers’ Federation, is a constructive contribution to the discussion of the future progress of this Dominion. The writer has said very little, but that little suggests much. One never tires of realising that the amazing expansion ot\ internal and international trade, the magnificent work expended on the development of this country in regard to roads, railways, clearances, industrial and legal organisations, and all the other concomitants of progress, have all taken place within the span of the lifetime of a healthy human being. It is not beyond the range of memory to recall the days when the early pioneers landed on the shores of New Zealand and put their hands to the clearing of the country that it might become fit to rear a colonial race. The point that is suggested—rather than being worked out into detail —by the writer of the article aforementioned, is that present-day tendencies in Now Zealand are point; ing 10 an overstress of interest in avocations other than tin; primary industries that are the very life-blood of the country. There is such a thing as a mistaken endeavor to develop too quickly, and acute obsbrvers are aware that progress in this country may possibly be retarded because of such misguided effort. A glance back to the early days of colonisation will make it quite clear that the original settlers had to turn their attention first of all to the land, whence all their immediate livelihood was to be obtained; and a moment’s relative consideration of the trend of effort to-day will show that the emphasis of those who have been reared in the Dominion and who seek an outlet for their ability, is being placed more upon the secondary industries or upon the professions, with the result that these aro rapidly becoming overcrowded, it is admitted at once that primary and secondary industries have their place in the scheme of development, and even that the former cannot come to its full fruition without due attention being paid to the latter. It is also admitted that the two arc complementary and not in the least antagonistic. Nevertheless, in Now Zealand as it is to-day, progress will come more speedily by the development of natural resources than by the exploitations of resources already developed by others. There is, in oilier words, a danger inherent in the multiplication of the purely bureaucratic or professional classes, because lack of economic balance ensues. ‘lt is perfectly true that we cannot till be agriculturalists or all engage in direct work upon the land, but neither can it bo denied that primary production is of prime importance in the Dominion. It may bo allowable to say that the time has come for a recognition of the wide implications of self-sup port in these islands. We cannot continue to advance without some measure of protection to enable us to compete with other countries whose standard of living is lower and whose hours of labor and rates of wages are loss, and while these conditions hold good the tendency is mainly directed to industry on the part of those who are seeking to make a way for themselves. But the nature of the coun try has itself determined the fact that the natural channel of advancement is now, and. will be for some time to eoiue, along the line of greater scientific research and investigation into the greater uses to bo made of its natural products. To-day, for example, there is a great deal of waste involved in many of our africulturai and pastoral pursuits. This can be eliminated by the discovery of a lequate measures whereby to deal with waste. The encouragement, therefore, of training in modern methods of research, would be of infinite value to us all and to the prosperity of the Dominion in general. At it is, commerce, trade and the professions are all too rapidly swallowing up the cream of the brains of out youth, and the far-flung nelds of our natural resources are being allowed more or less to look after themselves or to be administered on the identical principles applied by the early pioneers. Nothing is to be gained from blinking the fact that New Zealand cannot, and will not for many a day, manufacture many of the things she needs; that we shall continue to bo an importing country in the case of many commodities for practically all time. The necessity, therefore, arises that attention be more increasingly paid to the application of the most enlightened methods to the treatment of the soil, to the manipulation of stocks, and to the life on the land in general. The signs arc that attention is being directed from primary to other means of production on the part of the now generation.