The Estimates have been circulated, and, looking through them, one finds very little sign, if any, of any change of policy, any variation in policy, on the part of the Government respecting industry, commerce, and agriculture from that which has been prevalent within the last few years. We ought to have some declaration from the Minister as to what the Government is proposing to do to meet the situation that is developing, and that has arisen out of the depression in agriculture, the fall in prices, and the very slow increase in industrial production. It is important that we should face the fact that there is no general improvement, and it cannot be expected that there will be any general improvement in the economic situation of this country on present lines.
We ought to have some sign, particularly in the coming year, that the Government is aware of the need for definite action. Various papers and documents have been circulated, and they are helpful in enabling us to arrive at some appreciation of the economic position. The "Trade Journal" issued in February contains a summary of the crop returns for 1929 and 1930, and it also gives the yield of produce of agricultural crops. The returns do not indicate a state of things agriculturally which would foreshadow anything but a further depression in the general prosperity of the country during the coming year. We find that as compared with 1929 there was a fall of about 100,000 acres of land under tillage. What is much more ominous is that owing to the bad season there was a very considerable fall in the yield of produce of various crops. Only in one case was there any appreciable improvement, and that was with regard to the tonnage of sugar beet as distinct from the sugar content. There was a very serious decline in the total produce. In some cases, too, as farmers will tell us, there was a deterioration in quality. In respect to those things, they could have been counter-balanced if there had been an increase in price, but concurrent with a decline in the tillage area and a decline in yield there has been a fall in price. So far as I can see, that has not yet been arrested; at least, there is no sign of a rise.
Those three or four facts dealing with a basic industry rather warn us that the amount of wealth available for distribution and expenditure within the country during the coming year will be smaller than it has been. One could look at the situation with a certain amount of equanimity if one could see that there was a steady and rapidly increasing output of industrial wealth. It is because of the absence of any rapidly increasing output of productive wealth in industry that I think the Government is failing in its duty towards us by not foreshadowing some economic policy which would balance the inevitable fall in agricultural values following upon the weather conditions of last year. The situation, of course, is much worsened by the fall in prices.
We have had circulated some figures showing the productive output of industry in 1929 as compared with 1926. So far as they have gone they undoubtedly show an improvement between those years, but the improvement is so slight and, in the main productive industries, which are of importance to the masses of the people, the development is so slight that it will take a very long time for development in industrial production to recover and to make the balance as between agricultural and industrial production anything like fair or reasonable. The complaint I have to make is that Ministers, as indicated by the book of Estimates and by their declarations of policy, are not showing that they are aware of the slow development. They are continuing to hope that by the mere development of private industrial activity and private enterprise in profit-seeking activities the country will eventually arrive at a state of prosperity.
If one looks at some of the industries that have been fostered, or in regard to which attempts to foster have been made, it will be found that the growth is slow and the rate of overtaking the importation of commodities has been entirely unsatisfactory. We have instances of the boot and shoe trade and the hosiery and clothing trades. It is not at all hopeful that the slow development of private industries is going to do for these industries and, incidentally, for national prosperity what has been hoped for and expected by exponents, more particularly the chief opponents of the Government, when they relied upon protective tariffs. I have supported protective tariffs, and I do still support protective tariffs, but I am entirely averse to the notion that by merely increasing the rate of duty you are going to make certain that the industry is going to progress.
There ought to be some expression from the Minister as to what is the general trend of economic policy. On what are the Government relying to promote industrial prosperity and how do they propose to meet the decline in wealth production as related to the agricultural industry? I think the Minister for Finance is with me in this, that agriculture cannot be and ought not to be the sole support of the population. It ought not to be even the predominating support of the population in the way it has been hitherto if we are to expect a growth in general prosperity and an increase of population. The development of industrial production is essential, but there is a failure on the part of the Government to indicate what is being done to meet the necessity for a general increase in productive industry. I merely make these remarks as a preface to something that will have to be said at a later stage. I want to indicate that we are not satisfied with the economic policy of the Government as indicated by the Vote on Account and the Estimates that have been prepared.
