URBAN DRIFL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 524, 29 November 1928, Page 8

URBAN DRIFL

A S soothing syrup for uneasy people, Professor A. G. Fisher’s ** remarks in his lecture on “The Bogey of Urban Drift” are excellent stuff. As characteristic samples of abstract economic theories they run true to type, and stand up well enough to the sort of classroom examination which deals in theory after theory. But as a guide toward the formulation of a broad national policy they present hypotheses that would quickly lead the practical politician into trouble. To suggest that the sole purpose of the fawning industry, in New Zealand at present, is to supply the material requirements of our own community, is to dispense with the whole principle of overseas trade, on which our economic welfare is at present raised. It would be a satisfactory doctrine if we were a selfcontained community, but we are not. Nor are we likely to be. Even when the day arrives on which we turn our own ores into pots and pans: when we weave all our own woollen goods, and turn all the hides we produce into boots and shoes, New Zealanders will still not be content to concentrate their energies within their own borders. They will look overseas for markets, just as they have gone overseas for markets for butter, cheese, and wool. And the stimulus to that desirable end will not be given unless there is a satisfactory body of production from the rural areas. For this reason alone it is unsafe to acquiesce in any theory that suggests we must abandon land settlement or subdivision. The real justification for urban drift is in the increased use of farm machinery and (as compared with, say, England a hundred years ago) the fact that more foodstuffs come from overseas. But to condone that sort of urban drift when, as in New Zealand, it is unaccompanied by corresponding industrial development, is to ignore the practical issue. That issue in Auckland at present consists of some hundreds of unemployed men. Acquiescing in urban drift, wliat are we going to do with the driftage? We can't all be delivering lectures, spilling ink, or laying Neuchatel asphalt in Queen Street.