CONCLUSION 285 



burden of our National Debt is pressing upon us with 

 ever-increasing severity. For the maintenance and 

 clearance of this, our resources must be drawn upon 

 extensively, and we must ever stand prepared to meet 

 the demands of our numerous foreign creditors. Just 

 at this point, knowledge of certain economic phenomena 

 is a very valuable aid in estimating the attitude, which 

 we should now and eventually must assume, with 

 reference to our industrial activities. In the light of 

 the comparative cost theory, and of the advantages that 

 should flow from territorial specialisation of production, 

 New Zealand should concentrate attention upon her 

 farming industries, and the development of her natural 

 resources of coal, iron, gold, and timber. The present 

 attitude of a large section of the community, and of our 

 politicians, to manufactures must undergo a considerable 

 change. Our protective policy has as its objective the 

 fostering of many manufacturing industries for which 

 this country is not in reality adapted. The gradual 

 abolition of this protective policy would benefit the 

 community by lowering prices in the protected indus- 

 tries, and by turning the fresh supplies of labour and 

 capital of the country into more profitable channels. 

 The obvious conclusion, then, voiced throughout the 

 preceding pages, is that the wheat industry is of great 

 importance, and the future will witness progress in this 

 industry as in the other great rural industries. 



Although indeed in many places our treatment is 

 rather hurried and incomplete, we are nevertheless able 

 to offer a foundation for this conclusion. As already 

 stated. New Zealand must find annually a large surplus 

 of exports to maintain her growing National Debt, which, 

 for the most part, is held outside the country. Event- 

 ually, also, this debt will be repaid and repayment will 

 require exportation on an extensive scale. For these 

 purposes, the Dominion must rely upon the constant 



