THE COUNTRY'S SALVATION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 133, 22 February 1918, Page 7

THE COUNTRY'S SALVATION

DEVELOPMENT OF ITS ... RESOURCES.' "The future of this country will depend on two things," remarked the Hon. G. W. Russell at last nights gathering of Wellington's early Bettiers. One, he said, was the extension of settlement upon lands that, were now waste and unoccupied; and the other was upon the development of an industrial population within our country. In any elfort to establish a producing population in New Zealand we.must.have two things: wo must have in the firet place the land and in. the second place it was necessary to have the right class of men to go upon it. : After these two objectives were secured there should be no difhculty in tho way of the Government of the day (whatever Government it be) in providing the men settled upon the land with the necessary capital to allow thorn to obtain the wealth out of tho soil hy means of their labour. Take nny of tlie farmin" districts tributary to Wellington, and it would he found that these places were not settled by rich men, but by poor men who were given the opportunity and were frugal 'and thrifty," and turned out first-class and prosperous settlers. (Applause.) Continuing, the Minister recalled that our earlv settlers included many Scandinavian and other foreigners who had made good in every sense of the word. "If wo are to tako our place as a nation in the future," proceeded the speaker, "it cannot be done by saying that we are going to close our doors to population. _ We must open our doors to population." As to the population tho country was capable .of carrying when developed along the lines he bad suggested, Mr. Russell recalled how at one time the alluvial goldficlds of the West Const supported some 80,000 diggers. Now, it was a well-known scientific fact that alluvial goldfiolds had their origin in quartz' beds. These immense quartz beds, which, according to science, must exist on the. West Coast of New Zealand, had never been found. After the war, if we were going to successfully carry the huge burdens which its 'advent had imposed on us, we would have to bring science to hear in order to develop our resources. Wo could not go on depending on frozen mutton, wool, flax, and dairy produce for a living. Tho speaker concluded amidst an outburst of applause.