THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1909. A DEVELOPING COUNTRY'S PRIMARY INTERESTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9616, 9 October 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1909. A DEVELOPING COUNTRY'S PRIMARY INTERESTS.

The natural industries of a developing country are not only the primary industries in the sense of being 'original sources of wealth, hut also Iprimaryiin the sense of being' the most important of the country's industries. The other industries are j not so essential to the country's prosperity, and are often more or lless dependent upon the primary industries. The truth of this statement u writ large on the current ihistory of Canada. The great moveiment'in the British half of North ; America is rooted in the natural '•resources. It is not a triumph of a (tariff. It is the human acceptance of a partnership in production held out ■by Nature. It is the unlocking and appropriation of some of Nature's -wonderful storehouses. It is the occupying and cultivating of a previously neglected space of the fruitful old earth* Manufactures are, of course, i necessary to any and every com ■munity laying claim to civilisation. ißat in a country which is in pro cess af development, which is being (opened up sud settle.l, which is trying to draw population from older •countcies, which is seeking to become the home of a prosperous and poweriful nation, the natural industries itake the first place. A country's exports often.disclose the foundation of . its stability and progress. Canada's ido. The facts officially set forth in *he danada Year-book (1908) supply jjrr.esiatib.le evidence of the leading t pla«e filled in the country's life bv what are generally designated the primary industries. Jt is these industries mainly that, by means of an exported surplus., enable the Domn'on to enrich itself by importing' the productions of other countries. They are allso relied upon i mainSy to pay the interest on capital borrowed from other peoples and ultimately to wipe off the debt. See what these exports are. For the fiscal year ended March 31st, lflflg, they totalled 280 J >Q,06,606d01., the highest | figure ever reached up to that time, I though the current year bids fair to I beat it handsomely. Of this the home merchandise amounted to 246,960,968 dul.; foreign merchandise, 16,407,984d01.; and coin and bullion, 16.637,654d01, The exports of home merchandise ara specified thus:—Farm products (agricultural 66,069,939d01., and animal 55,101,260:lul.), 121,171,199 dollars; Forest produce, 44,170,470dollars;Minerals 39,177,133 dollars; Fisheries, 13,867,368 dollarf.—Total export ot natural products, 218,386,170 dollars. The otb§r export 1 ? of home merchandise -

are:—Manufactures, 28,507,124 dollars; Miscellaneous. 67,674 dollars. —Total, 28,574,798 dollars. There is no mistaking the significance of these returns. The exported surplus of natural products exceeds that of manufactures in the proportion of nearly eight to one. It is the primary industries which give Canada her exchange (or buying and selling) power in the world. The protective element in the tariff assures her manufacturing industry a considerable command of th2 domestic market. And the case is even more remarkable than it appears on the surface. For a large proportion of the exported manufactures obviously originated in the primary indus tries. They are natural products carried on to the stage of manufactures. For instance, leather to the value of about two million dollars; a million's worth of aluminium in pigs, bars, and ingots; paper, about three and a half millions; i wood pulp over four millions ; and other rraiiufactures of wood, over five millions. More than half the exported manufactures btlor.g to this class. The lesson of these facts for us is clear. It is to the primary industries that we must look for the kind of progress that we stand most in need of. By developing and rendering accessible the great natural resources of this country, we shall create a demand for labour that can only be met by a suitable scheme of im migration, at.d create sn opportunity for enterprises that will draw t) our shores a stream cf capital. It is upon the natural resources and the industries that can be planted in them that public attention should be concentrated. For here, as in Canada, the primary industries will create their own class of manufactures, some of which will bear the test of export, while all the other classes will feel the stimulus ot a constantly increasing home demand.