The Dominion WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1919. A STANDARD OF PROGRESS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 272, 13 August 1919, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1919. A STANDARD OF PROGRESS

The Prime Minister has set a good standard of progress in declaring that it js necessary to so expand production that it will be possible, to increase exports from tho Dominion by at least fifty per cent. Such an increase no doubt is easier to talk about than to accomplish, but in view of the calls to be met it cannot be called an extravagant aspiration. Since 1914 the National Debt has been doubled and heavy annual charges have been incurred for pensions and under other heads. Simultaneously with the imposition of these onerous burdens there has developed an almost universal demand for better working and living conditions. i A substantial increase- in production and in exports quite obviously represents the only means of meeting war obligations and 'other demands which are now raped.'. Such an increase as the EltiME Minister has called for may be accepted as a standard of progress, not only on this immediate ground, but because of other things its attainment would imply. It will not be attained, for instancc-at all events within a reasonable period—unless workers and employers show themselves capable of cu-opcr-atrag in an enlightened policv of promoting and maintaining industrial peace. Neither will.it be attained unless the most is made of available resources in tapping new sources of wealth, such as waterpower, and in progressively improving the organisation of industry and of the transport arid other services upon which industry in all its ramifications is dependent. The problem raised is many-sided, "and concerns every section of the community, but most of all it concerns the man on the land. Increased production in this country means first' and foremost increased primary production, and it of course follows that the most important contribution to the solution .of, the problem of increasing production is to be found in the enter.pnsing extension of subdivision and settlement and the more intensive use of land. This is an obviQVis truism, but sonic of the practical conclusions to which it leads tire nob yet as generally accepted or applied as they ought to be. In particular, though it is agreed on all hands chat vacant lands must be Settled and big estates :su&lividod ) the question of improving the productivity of lands already well occupied has not thus far received anything like the attention it deserves. Some observations made the other day by the Minister of Lands (Mb. Guthrie) arc very much to the point in this connection. He was referring primarily to the excellent scheme of agricultural club's and competitions for country lads to which prominence has been given In the columns of The Dominion recently, but his remarks are capable of a wider application. Speaking of "the battle 'for good farming;" he said that in this country as well as in America some farmers were inclined to ridicule the idea that scholastic instruction would enable them to better the results they had obtained in profitably farming their land over a long period of years. "The man who says this," tho Minister added, 'very often is neglectful of the fact that with scientific treatment the land would have produced 100 per cent, more, and would have remained in good heart instead of being reduced, in many cases, to an impoverished condition,"

Taking some guidance from what ]l being done in. other countries, me Minister ought to have no great difficulty in convincing New Zealand farmers, that many of them have still a great deal to learn in ■regard to the intensive use of land and that they liavo everything to gam from profiting bv such facilities as the State is able to place within their reach. Something is to be learned, for instance, from what is now being undertaken in this direction in the United States. The American Secretary for Agriculture (Me. Houston)"is now giving practical effect to a plan, based upon the advice of an expert committee, which aims at securing some of the best available minds in the country to direct investigations relating' to farm management and farm economics, and particularly in studying the cost of production.

•_ Especial emphasis (Mr. Houston states) w to, be .given to studies of the cost, of producing farm products. . . . The results of these investigations will make it possible to analyse the elements of cost and to point out to farmers the best methods to follow. This, it is believed, will lead to the better organisation of farms with a view to reducing costs and increasing profits, which in turn will be of benefit both to producer and consumer. Furthermore, these studies will furnish tho basis for passing intelligent judgment nuo.ii the prohnblo effects of any given legislation or other publio activity upon tho farmer ns a producer and a citizen.

The American Department of Agriculture is already making good headway in these extended activities. Under its plans when they are fully developed methodical attention will bo given to every aspect of farming and farm life, the' pooled results of practical experience together with' the best scientific advice will be made available to all farmers, and sustained efforts will be made at once to increase production and to'popularise rural pursuits.

It implies no depreciation of .what has been accomplished in this country by the Department of Agriculture and by .farmers' organisations to say that it offers great scope for enterprise on similar linos. It will hardly be doubted that such a methodical and comprehensive study of working methods and costs as is being undertaken in America would lead in this country to a material enhancement of production, with great benefit to individual farmers and to the whole population. It at the same time offers farmers the

leaclicsfc means of rebutting the charge of profiteering sometimes made against them by those who have little knowledge of the circumstances in which they are really placed. Popular misconceptions of this nature are a fruitful source of bitterness and dissension, and farmers themselves have recognised the fact. Only last Saturday, for instance, the Manawntu- Farmers' Union approved a series of remits providing for something in the nature of a publicity campaign to clear primary producers of the charge of profiteering. Another benefit resulting from the methodical organisation of primary industries would be to create much more definite _ standards of land values than exist at present. Touching on the evils of land speculation at trie last annual meeting of the Bank of New Zealand shareholders, Mn. Haiiold Bbauchami' observed that the value of any farm land must be determined by what could bo got out.of it by a competent farmer, that at present this was largely a matter of guesswork, and that what was primarily required as a guide to the real value of land was a more exact system of farm bookkeeping. This hardly covers the whole remedy, but it is obvious that if a sound knowledge of intensive farming methods became general, the value of any given farm would be much more- definitely ascertained than it is at present, and there would be a- corresponding cheek to the unguided speculation whilTi is now r common and operates to the detriment alike of the farmer and of the consumer. _ Although the enterprising extension of subdivision and settlement offers the quickest and readiest means of increasing the output of primary industries in Jhis country, it seems likely that the better organisation of these 'industries _ and the spread of intensive farming will make in the end an even, more important contribution to the solution of the problem of increasing production which is and will be the most pressing business of the present generation.