664 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
clothing, and shelter required for consumption by the individual 
members of the community and for increase. It includes carriage, 
manufacture, and distribution. It is obvious that the process may be 
well or ill done, wastefully or economically; that a process suitable 
for one time or place may bo unsuitable for another, and that any 
disturbance or ill-adjustment of the mechanism by which the process 
is performed may give rise to serious disorders in the health of the 
body politic. This part of the process, may, however, be conveniently 
further considered iii connection with that of* circulation. 
Before passing to that branch of the subject it may be worth 
while to point out that in many communities, notably those which 
have large foreign obligations, part of the income of the community 
is not available for the supply of food, clothing, and shelter, or for 
growth and accumulation. Deductions must be made for payments 
to foreign creditors as well as to absentee owners of bounties of 
Nature situated within the community. Jf the total income should 
be insufficient to supply the necessaries of life and to discharge their 
obligations, the community must have recourse to further borrowing 
or make default. The burden of the obligations is in any ease an 
effective diminution of the income of the community available for 
food, clothing, and shelter, and for growth and accumulation. 
AVhat is the annual income of the body politic of Queensland or 
of any other Australian province, or, for that matter, of any other 
country, and hoAv much of it is available for itself after discharging 
its foreign obligations? What is the total amount available annually 
for the supply of food, clothing, and shelter to the people, and what 
surplus is left for growth ? An answer to these questions would show 
at once whether a country was progressing or retrogressing in material 
prosperity. And without an answer to them, and without the inquiries 
that are necessary to afford an an swer, how can the true condition of 
a community be ascertained with any degree of accuracy P 
I have not myself seen any comparative statistics dealing with 
this aspect of the wealth of communities. In the case of older 
nations the difficulties in the way of accurately ascertaining the facts 
would probably be considerable, but in the case of communities like 
those of Australia they should be trifling as compared with those of 
preparing, say, the remarkable statistics lately published by Mr. 
Coghlan on the movements of money in Australia. Besides the 
knowledge of the actual condition of the community, which I con- 
ceive to be highly important, if not essential, to its welfare, and which 
might be acquired by the investigations 1 have suggested, some other 
interesting facts would be disclosed — for instance, the proportion of 
the annual produce that is disposed of in discharge of foreign obliga- 
tions and for no present equivalent, the proportion of the whole 
income of the community that is taken by the State to defray the cost 
of government, the actual burden of an income tax or a property tax, 
and — which I anticipate would be the most surprising of all — the 
average amount annually expended upon the food, clothing, and 
shelter of each individual. 
3. The quality of the income. On this point it is sufficient to 
remark that the products of the labour of the community must be 
such as to he themselves available for consumption in the form of 
