1918.] The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 
135 
UNUTILIZED SOURCES OF WEALTH IN THE NEW 
ZEALAND SEAS.* 
By the Hon. Geo. M. Thomson, M.L.C., F.L.S. 
New Zealand has grown so wealthy from the production of her agricultural 
and pastoral resources, and their ready sale at high prices, that its popula¬ 
tion has largely ignored other vast sources of national wealth which lie at 
her very doors waiting to be exploited. Perhaps it has not paid in the past 
to consider these ; but the nations of the world are about to enter on a new 
phase of commerce and industry as one of the results of the Great War, and 
this country must keep pace with what is being done elsewhere, or it will 
ere long lag behind in the fierce competition. 
In very many instances wealth has been too easily acquired, and in 
consequence little effort has been made to improve conditions. Of late 
years considerable advance has been made in the scientific development 
of agriculture ; and, though the average farmer remains as unscientific as- 
ever, the need for more specific and exact training is recognized, and some 
improvement is noticeable in the education of those who intend to make 
the pursuit of agriculture their life-work. There is a danger that some¬ 
thing very mediocre may be accepted in agricultural teaching, and 
the scientific men of the country must see to it that a high standard 
of scientific training is given to the future farmers and stock-raisers of the 
Dominion. 
When we turn to the vast unutilized resources of the seas which surround 
this country, with their five thousand miles of coast-line and their teeming 
life, we find that almost nothing has been done to develop these, and abso¬ 
lutely nothing to educate the men who have tried to do so. The fish-supply 
in the sea is enormous ; the fish-supply which finds its way to the popula¬ 
tion is very small, is utterly inadequate to meet the demand, and is most 
irregular. The distribution is very defective, and it is very desirable that 
the fishing industry should receive from the Railway Department the assist¬ 
ance that the fruitgrowing and the agricultural industries have obtained. 
The fishing industry has yet to receive its due meed of encouragement from 
the Government. 
At present New Zealand does not supply the wants of her own popula¬ 
tion, for in 1916 she imported fish (mostly preserved) to the value of £92,821. 
Of this sum over £55,000 went to Canada and the United States for tinned 
salmon, and over £29,000 to Europe (£24,428 to Norway) for sardines. A 
certain amount of this will always be imported, even when we are able to 
tin our own quinnat salmon, and though sardines are very abundant in the 
surrounding seas at certain seasons of the year. But a great deal more 
might be done in the way of preserving fish, oysters, crayfish, &c. South 
Africa has a steadily increasing export trade in tinned crayfish, and they 
have the same species as occurs in this country, but not in such abundance. 
The export of fish from New Zealand for 1916 was valued at £33,550, 
and £29,623 of this was for fresh fish sent to Australia. 
* This article has been suggested by a perusal of a paper read by Professor Prince, 
Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries, Canada, and entitled “ Unutilized Fisheries 
Resources of Canada.” 
