The Dominion WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1919. A USEFUL ADDRESS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 302, 17 September 1919, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1919. A USEFUL ADDRESS

■ The farmers-of this country have no better spokesman than Sir Jajiks Wilson,, and no doubt as a body they lire very ready to affirm the fact. • The reason that he is able to fill such arole as well as he does obviously is that in dealing with national questions, and particularly with the various aspects of production, .upon which he is qualified by experience ahd observation to speak with authority, he adheres consistently, to a broad and dispassionate standpoint. _He does not shrink from criticising or denouncing those whom he feels to be at fault, but his public utterances demonstrate very clearly that he is a man to whom faction and strife-mongering arc utterly, repugnant. It is as an able representative, and not a partisan advocate of the man on the land, that Sin James Wilson is known to the public. No man. assuredly, has the interests of farmers and of rural industry more 'at heart, but he is quite as ready to fasten upon the errors of farmers as upon those of other sections of the, community, and what he has to say on behalf of primary producers ■ carries the more weight since he never claims for them more than their duo place ju a well-ordered community. Taking this enlightened attitude, he has been, and is, a power for good in Dominion, and there never was a time when he had better scope for useful public service than in this year of transition from the stress of war to the exacting tasks of reconstruction. As a thoughtful and temperate survey of existing conditions and a guide to public policy and private action, his presidential address at the opening session of the New Zealand Farmers' Union Conference yesterday is worthy, of his own earlier utterances on public questions. ' ■. _~ j

While they are unscnsational, Sib James Wilson's ideas in regard.to tho line of reconstructive activity that ought to be followed in this country, and' must be followed if it is to prosper, arc. refreshingly clear cut. The gospel of common working effort he preaches will ■■ no doubt be anathema to the exponents of class war, but it will appeal to all who are capable of honestly facing the existing situation and outlook. It is, of course;- not in dispute that there are defects' of national and industrial organisation which intensify existing evils, and would be remedied with great benefit to the general population, but it is equally evident that such factors offer much less serious obstacles to progress and reform- than the efforts of interested agitators to create and magnify differences between one section of the. community and another. People of this type are accustomed to Gold up the farmer to public odium and to accuse him of having amassed huge profits at the expense of the rest of the Sir James son demonstrates, in a fashion that will be convincing to thoso whV adopt an impartial attitude that popular notions about the huge profits earned by farmers are largely delusive, and that when account is taken of tho enormously increased outlay in the wages of farm labour and in other ways, the increased returns obtained for produce during the war year's are not particularly impressive in comparison with the great and general increase in earnings by wagc-cavners throughout .the pomtuion. The enormous increase in Post Office Savings Bank deposits during the war as compared with pre-war years is, as he points out, convincing evidence that a substantial section of the workers have not done .go badly during the war period. The increase in deposits over withdrawals is the more remarkable in view of the fact that a great deal of money has'beeu taken out of Savings Bank accounts for investment in war. bonds and certificates.

While he adequately defends the former against unfair criticism, the central point made by Sir James Wilson in his address is that this country is hound to rest its hopes upon production and development, and that those of its people who seek any other road to prosperity are morely_ chasing shadows. As he observes, "it must be recognised that wages have a relation to production, though at present it seems the fashion to think that only the cost of living has to be considered." This touches the root of the matter. * The industrial workers of this country will never attain the prosperity which is within their reach until they develop a policy of increasing production as much as possible by their own efforts and by giving

others—above all, the farmer—the conditions which will enable them to.do the same. ''Go-slow" tactics and all the circumstances of industrial strife and friction directly penalise the whole community, and not least the workers who engage in such practicjs. But, in this country, these conditions achieve their worst and most damaging results in hampering and hindering the free prosecution and the primary industries, upon which its prosperity chiefly depends. Sir J Aim Wilson's address is of particular value in the clear emphasis it lays upon these self-evident but neglected truths.