The Daily News MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1934. EMPIRE GEOGRAPHY.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1934, Page 4

The Daily News

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1934. EMPIRE GEOGRAPHY.

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The strictures passed by the High Commissioner, Sir James Parr, on Great Britain’s ignorance of Empire geography.may or may not be justified. Whatever may be thought of the good taste of the remarks made by Sir James, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that his audience felt the observations constituted an example of “Satan reproving sin.” Judging from the results obtained in New Zealand schools ignorance in regard to other portions of the Empire is not confined to Great Britain, though the Dominion’s concern in intra-Empire trade is vital to her well-being, while in Great Britain the position is very different. It is to be hoped the High Commissioner’s criticism of England will bear fruit nearer home, and that the teaching of Empire geography in New Zealand will be given the position of importance it ought to occupy. Fortunately the old ideas that to study geography meant simply the memorising of certain details of physical characteristics in a manner as uninteresting as seemed possible have long since been abandoned. Nevertheless the knowledge of other parts of the Empire, not always excluding Great Britain, possessed by the average expupil of even the secondary schools leaves a good deal to be desired. It is true, of course, that the study of geography is one of conditions that are continually changing. The industrial geography of Great Britain, for instance, has been recast in the last decade. The tide of manufacture has turned from the north to the south of England, one of the explanations of the migration being that the use of other sources of power has minimised the advantage formerly obtained by establishing manufactures near the coalbearing areas, and with the development of the national supplies of electric current the transfer of industry to districts where climatic and other conditions are more favourable is, according to some authorities, likely to increase rather than diminish. The industrial geography of Britain may seem at first sight purely a domestic matter. On the contrary it has an important bearing on trading arrangements, especially those that must be made by countries like New Zealand who desire to supply the denser centres of Britain’s population with food products. If the knowledge of Great Britain’s geography is scanty among New Zealand school pupils that in regard to other portions of the Empire is usually even less. Canada as a country where vast prairies have become wheat farms and where it is winter for nearly half the year; South Africa as a hot, dusty sub-continent producing gold and diamonds, represents the average information obtainable about two Dominions where industrial, racial and social problems exist and with whom New Zealand desires to cultivate better trade relations. The exhortation given by Sir James Parr to the education authorities in Britain might be heeded in the Dominion, for in the competition for trade that New Zealand and every other exporting country must expect in the years to come there is no room for ignorance or lack of preparation. The High Commissioner’s plea for a greater development of trade between Britain and the Dominions will be heartily endorsed in New Zealand. Here again the action cannot be one-sided, and the sooner full knowledge of the conditions obtaining in each part of the Empire is common to them all the less likely are there to be the misunderstandings or the apparent preference in England for trade with foreign countries to, which Sir James Parr drew the attention of the authorities and. the public of Great’Britain. His opinion that the negotiations in regard to meat were likely to find a long-term solution agreeable to the Dominions was cheer-

ing. It can he assumed that the statement would not have been made without due consideration, and further details of the arrangements proposed will be aw&ited with eagerness. Perhaps the most gratifying portion of the statement was that the agreement, whatever it is, will be long-standing. That is essential if producers in the Dominion are to reorganise production to suit the wishes of the consumer in Great Britain. Such exports as frozen pork and chilled beef will need the raising of different classes of livestock, and if this is to be undertaken the farmers of the Dominion should know that the marketing conditions for such products will remain unaltered for a reasonable period.