A TIMELY ESSAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1939, Page 10

A TIMELY ESSAY

“THE BASIS OF PROSPERITY IN NEW ZEALAND.” ADVOCACY OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. Questions that are of particular interest in New Zealand at present are dealt with in a highly informative and stimulating way by Dr Roy Gardner in a little book of some 110 pages—an essay its author modestly calls it — “The Basis of Prosperity in New Zealand.”

The leading conclusion presented by Dr Gardner in this brief, but by no means perfunctory economic survey is that, as New Zealand is now placed, “any increase of material prosperity on a stable basis can be achieved only by developing the manufacturing industries of the country.” The choice, as he sees it, “is between building a stable, prosperous community with imports at a reasonable level and resigning ourselves to a state of comparative poverty, with imports fluctuating, bn* on the whole no riigher than they will be if we build up our industries.” Dr Gardner suggests that: “As regards some goods (how many depends on our estimate of the lowest level of export yield) the question simply boils down to this—is it better to make them' ourselves and be sure of having them, or to buy them cheaply when the export yield is high and go without them altogether when the export yield is low? For we cannot have it both ways.

The scope of Dr Gardner’s exposition is indicated in his chapter headings—- “ External Debt, Exports and Imports,” “Imports and Natural Resources,” “Imports and Local Manufacture.” “Natural Resources and Local Manufacture,” “Local Consumption and Size of Population,” “Stabilisation and In ternal Development,” “Methods of Controlling Imports” and “Great Britain’s Views.” It adds considerably to the value of the book that its author deals with his subject, as he himself observes, primarily from the point of view of goods and services rather than from the financial aspect. At the same time, he discusses leading aspects of the financial position in a thoroughly practical and informative way.

A good deal of what Dr Gardner has to say necessarily raises controversial issues. Opinion is acutely divided in this country at present’on the extent 4o which an enterprising expansion of manufacturing industries can be reconciled with the interests of those engaged in farming industry and with the general trading interests of the Dominion. Even those who may be most inclined to dispute some of Dr Gardner’s conclusions and contentions will be bound to admit, however, that he sets out material for discussion in an admirably orderly way. Stating his case well and effectively, Dr Gardner marshals an impressive array of facts and figures. As an industrial chemist, he speaks with exceptional authority on many details of his subject. He repudiates in decided terms for example, the idea that this country must be regarded as poorly endowed by nature to develop manufacturing industries. There are in fact, he says, few countries of comparable size better off. There is undoubted force in his contention that the total economy of the Dominion has been affected adversely by an unregulated and fluctuating import trade. He is plainly right, too, in maintaining that while the volume of our imports must be determined sooner or later by the available export balance, it is not inevitable that the limits imposed in one way or another on import trade should apply also to production and trade within the Dominion. On this point Dr Gardner observes that the factors of local material and labour are here in any case and that he “is unable to see any reason why conditions overseas should be allowed to dictate the fullness of the extent to which we make use of them.” “The Basis of Prosperity in New Zealand” deserves to be widely read. It should be of value to all who take an interest in the problems of trade and industrial development by which the Dominion is confronted and in methods by which these problems may be brought to a solution. The book is published by Messrs Coulls, Somerville, Wilkie, Ltd, Dunedin. The price is 3s 6d.