98 ; SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 
volume of exports increased by 18 per cent. In exchange for the greater 
quantity of exports, after making provision for payment of interest and 
other fixed claims, we received in return, for 1932, 34 per cent. less quantity 
of imports compared with the position in 1928. The net effect of this 
was that for 1932 the quantity of goods available for consumption in the 
Dominion was 25 per cent. lower than in 1928. On the same basis the 
shortage for 1933 was 26 per cent. This was a real loss due principally 
to (a) having to set aside a larger quantity of produce to meet fixed 
obligations overseas; and (b) the fact that the terms of barter in Great 
Britain have gone against us, with the result that in exchange for a given 
quantity of primary products we now receive less manufactured goods 
than formerly—that is to say, the prices of primary goods have fallen 
more than the prices of manufactured goods.’ What can New Zealand 
do if this continues ? Nothing, except divert some of her population to 
new local industries, uneconomic secondary industries is the term em- 
ployed, and keep out every article she can produce at home. 
As a contrast, consider the case of Canada. Like New Zealand’s, her 
total foreign trade per head of population is large. Indeed, she usually 
comes third in order of magnitude of this item and runs Denmark closely 
for second place. But, unlike New Zealand, she is an important manu- 
facturing country with much developed mineral wealth, as well as being 
a producer and large exporter of agricultural commodities. Her industries 
have been built up with imported capital behind high tariff walls; and 
she pursued for years what was, in essence, a mild policy of economic 
self-sufficiency when other new countries were developing in more narrow 
grooves. Her foreign trade in commodites for 1934 amounted in value 
to $1,145 million, which was an increase of nearly 25 per cent. on the figure 
for 1933. It is estimated by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics that 
Canadians purchased in 1934 some $300 million of foreign securities or 
of Canadian securities held abroad and that Canadian governments and 
corporations retired $75 million in bonds owned abroad, while purchases 
of Canadian securities and investments by foreigners amounted to 
$355 million. Thus, there was a net export of capital in that year of 
$20 million which cannot but be regarded as satisfactory, especially as 
the increases in foreign trade in commodities was due in equal shares to 
increases in both imports and exports of goods. It is difficult to resist 
the conclusion that Canada is now reaping the reward of her foresight in 
developing variety in her economic system instead of continuing a narrower 
specialisation in the production of primary agricultural commodities. 
Probably she will continue to enjoy comparative prosperity in a disordered 
world, if she is content with a moderate diversity in her economic life ; for 
the price to be paid for an over-ambitious programme of self-sufficiency 
is high, especially in a country the main wealth of which consists of primary 
products and which is, on the whole, still a debtor on balance to the rest 
of the world. This price is nothing less than a definite lowering in the 
standard of life of its people. 
Equally with other countries exporting agricultural products the United 
States of America have experienced the special difficulties during the 
depression in which the fall in the prices of foodstuffs was so much greater 
