464 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 
beset the path and invalidate the conclusions of the untrained observer. But 
much more is needed than these. To a knowledge of abstract things must be 
added acquaintance not only with economic history but also with economic 
phenomena as they exist and arise in the present. These furnish what may be 
called the content of the study of economics, and it is these which the economist 
has to examine and analyse. To some extent the new knowledge thus registered 
may modify previous generalisations. The practical bearing of such study on 
the problems of government and State action is obvious. But, quite apart 
from this immediate importance, it is a matter for regret that in a country like 
Australia, where there is so much economic material, comparatively little as 
yet has been done to treat it scientifically, and so to add to the body of 
organised economic knowledge. 
I will take one instance. It is common knowledge that the labour legislation 
of Australia and New Zealand differs greatly from that attempted not only in 
old-established countries but in any of the other so-called new countries. We 
want a really scientific examination of the causes which are responsible for this . 
difference. It is easy to make certain suggestions. Something may be due to 
the fact that the economic growth in Australasia is even more recent than that 
of Canada and the United States. Again, the manufacturing development is 
less advanced, and so the capitalistic element which finds its surest footing in 
the industrial domain is less powerful. Again, the contact with the organised 
industrial system of the older world is different in character from that which 
occurs in the case of the other countries mentioned above. Moreover the early 
history of Australia encouraged reliance upon the State. But suggestions like 
these, and others might be added to them, need careful investigation and 
detailed inquiry before they can be accepted as an adequate explanation of this 
problem; and such an investigation should be undertaken in Australia. 
Hitherto I have dealt chiefly with the explanation which the previous 
examination of the special features apparent in new countries affords of the 
nature of State action in such lands. 
I would turn now to an equally important question—what guidance, if any, 
is afforded as to particular defects which require attention or particular impulses 
and forces which stand in need of special encouragement? Incidentally some- 
thing has been said about certain of them. The comparative weakness of 
custom and traditions, in one way an advantage, is from another point of view 
a disadvantage. The dominance of customs is harmful, not because they are 
customs, but because old customs are often wrong or at least inapplicable to new 
conditions. But custom lies at the basis of the social fabric and enables a 
common consciousness as to right and wrong and a community of feeling and 
thought which are all important in organised social life. It is possible that 
State action, if widely participated in and sympathised with by the people at 
large, may strengthen the social tie. Again, the importance of local public work 
by all members of the community has been emphasised: it cannot be too 
strongly emphasised. ‘The besetting temptation of prosperity, and particularly 
of prosperity as it appears in a new country, displays itself in too great a 
concentration on material wealth and too exclusive a reference of everything 
to a material standard. It may be said that the same tendency manifests itself 
in the older world. That is true. On the other hand, not only are the economic 
circumstances fostering it much less dominant and pervading, but the social 
order and traditions which survive from the past provide at any rate partial 
corrective. As has been said before, while there is much to criticise in the 
notion of an aristocracy by birth or of traditional and professional standing, such 
distinctions counteract the influence of mere material achievement as the test 
of success, and indicate a vague belief, however misplaced, in some immaterial 
standard which at least has the merit of implying obligations as well as rights. 
But on what can a new country rely? On the one hand, on the recognition of 
the sheer excellence of manhood and character quite apart from material 
results; on the other hand, on a belief in education and knowledge in the wider 
and higher sense. This lends a peculiar importance to the encouragement of 
science and the development of educational ideals in a new country. 
In the survey just attempted certain causes have stood out so prominently 
and as so influential in their results as to demand a few words of comment. 
