Book Reviews 115

ment with redundancy, redeployment and unemployment becoming the norm.

Wooding describes the liberalising of the international trade regime with the removal of import licensing, phasing out of export incentives, a tariff reform package and the progressive introduction of a free trade area with Austra- lia, but points out the difficulty of partialling out their effect on production and employment.

Chapters on financial, monetary and fiscal policy along with Buckle’s on sequencing and the foreign exchange market and its effect on reducing the international competitiveness of New Zealand exporters, give a com- prehensive coverage of reform mechanisms. Further chapters on competition law and regulatory changes in the transport and energy sectors add detail to the coverage.

This leaves farming and the vast area of social policy. Evans, examining farming in a changing economic en- vironment, expects the future of farming to be dependent on export and import prices, the development of the other sectors in the economy and their interaction, the level of protection given to local producers, and real exchange rates. Few would disagree with his crystal ball gazing which fortells the reduction in the number of owner- occumed family farms and the growth in larger, diversified farms run with greater expertise in financial management.

Stephens’ concluding chapter deals with social policy reform; more in retrospect than prospect. The issue facing government is stated succinctly. Namely, which social policy model is best suited to a country with an ageing population, greater female participation in the work force, and a decline in the traditional nuclear family. The question of distribution will have to be faced, economic growth or no, if the New Zealand egalitarian ethic (often more mythical than real) is to be maintained.

During the course of the volume, the sharp severance in the traditional ways of economic management and sectoral organisation cannot be overemphasised. The volume is good on detailed description of change and its impli- cations. To that end it is a valuable contribution to the debate on New Zealand economy and, implicitly, to society. As to whether it will achieve its objective and be read hy a wide audience, particularly the relatively poor suffering the social and economic pain of transition, is open to doubt.

DAVID G. RANKIN Dep~r~ent of orography and Regional Research Unit

University of Auckland, New Zealand

Plant Ecology, M.J. Crawley (ed.), 496 pp., 1986, Black- well Scientific, Oxford, $17.50

environmental matters are currently a topical subject and what could be more interesting than the study of veg- etation which integrates the effects of climate, underlying soil and Man’s management of the resource. This interest has been accompanied by the production of several books on plant ecology, which is the study of the interrelation- ships of plants and the factors controlling their distri- bution.

This is a multi-author book involving thirteen academics from the United States and Great Britain and, as is usual in such reviews, I will avoid commenting on individual chapters. The book focusses on the principles and pro- cesses of plant ecology and is therefore fairly academic, with little on application, as might be hoped for by many readers of this journal. The book does, however, mclude much stimulating, original and interesting reading and for anyone searching for a deeper understanding of how individual plants and species interact it represents a challenging opportunity.

One early chapter on ‘Canopy gaps and dynamics of a neotropical forest’ is somewhat out of place and the titles of those on ‘Pollination and seed dispersal’ and ‘Breeding structures and genetical variation’ will help illustrate the range and nature of the material covered, There is more emphasis on ecology at the population level rather than at the community level which might be more appropriate to the reader of the Journal of Rural Studies. TIxe editor states in the preface that he aims to adopt an ‘individual plant’ rather than a ‘quadrat’ approach.

The layout is pleasing although not all chapters have summaries or conclusions, which many readers appreciate. The content is authoritative, mostly original as far as books are concerned, and slightly idiosynchratic. It represents good value at g17.50 for a paperback nearly 500 pages long. There are numerous references, an author and subject index which together extend to nearly 100 pages. In summary then this is an excellent academic book but will not present a background to rural issues.

BARRIE GOLDSMI~ Department of Biology

University College, London

The Lake District Special Planning Board 1974-1986: Some Financial Aspects, I. Brodie, 90 pp., 1987, Occasional Paper, Department of Geography, University of Lancaster, f3.50

This is an unusual and informative publication which presents an insider’s view of the detailed financial aspects of one national park authority. Ian Brodie, a school- teacher, was a Ministerial appointee to the Lake District Special Planning Board (LDSPB) for the years in question and consequently enjoyed privileged access not only to details of the Board’s accounts but also to personalities and to policy formulation. While this offers him consider- able material, there is nevertheless some disappointment that this wealth of informtion is not employed toward any notable conclusion.

The report is not narrowly concerned with national park finance, embracing in addition the politicisation of the LDSPB, the dominance of certain individuals and conflicts with county and district authorities. It begins by sketching the history of the pre-1974 Board, which Brodie sees as preoccupied with recreation to the neglect of positive preservation work. Brodie’s explanation is that ‘it appeared to interpret conservation through the negative effects of refusing proposed developments’ (p. 15>, yet this seems questionable given the 50% increase in the number of houses in the park during this period.