282 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
CHAPTER XI. 
CONCLUSION. 
1. The Aim of the Investigation. 
In many of its departments economic science has 
reached the stage at which application to practical 
problems long since desired is now possible. The 
fundamental ideas in the general abstract theory are 
almost universally accepted now, and, while many 
problems mainly in Distribution and Exchange yet 
remain unsolved, sufficient work has been done to 
warrant the application of general theoretical know- 
ledge to practical problems. In a lecture on ‘‘Economic 
Science in Relation to Practice,’’ Prof. Pigou points 
out emphatically that economics deals with real life, 
not with mere abstractions; that it should therefore 
be a practical study. He classifies the sciences as 
“‘light-bearing’’ and ‘‘fruit-bearing,’’ according to 
the nature of the knowledge which they impart, and 
in a comparison of economics and astronomy, he claims 
for the former the distinguishing characteristic of 
‘‘fruit-bearing.’? While economists in the past have 
generally and rightly confined their attention to an 
analysis and interpretation of the facts of economic 
life, their ultimate aim is undoubtedly the accumulation 
of scientific experience to guide mankind to those 
ideals which it is the function of economic ethics to 
set up. ‘‘It has been frequently assumed, even by 
economists, that pure economics, concerned as it is 
with general theories, can have but scant relation to 
the varying succession of particular instances of con- 
crete life. And, indeed, it is sometimes regarded as 
futile to attempt to bring the two into factual relation. 
