PLAN TO INCREASE PRODUCTION.

Evening Star, Issue 23382, 27 September 1939, Page 8

PLAN TO INCREASE PRODUCTION.

The Dunedin Junior Chamber of Commerce must be commended for its thoughtful contribution to possible ways and moans of building up the Dominion’s primary production with a view to helping Great Britain to solve the vital problem of food supply in wartime, As it now appears before the public the Junior Chamber’s scheme may prove neither feasible nor acceptable, but there is no doubt that it merits close investigation. One point- that seems to have been overlooked is that the kind of labour which produces foodstuffs for export is very much of the skilled variety,, and it is unlikely that the activities of week-end “ casuals,” however willing these men may be, would succeed in augmenting to any appreciable extent tho quantity of produce available for shipment overseas. What the farmers really need are experienced permanent hands who can help them to carry, out agricultural and pastoral operations by modern methods and with a minimum of delay. The shortage of regular farm labour, caused originally by tho Government’s Public Works programme, has apparently been accentuated by army enlistments, and it is certain that the landowners will not be able to obey the official behest that they should grow more wheat and the like unless they are given the skilled manual help they need.

Obviously, men from the country who have been passed fit for the forces will not now be sent back to their civil occupations, but, if the situation is as bad as is reported, recruiting agents should exercise some discrimination in their selection. The Government, for its own part, will be performing a duty if it thoroughly revises by way of curtailment its public works programme and gives experienced farm hands on its pay roll every encouragement to return to the land. Furthermore, mechanised aids, such as the famous bull-dozers, could be utilised in clearing new areas for cultivation. It is clear that in this manner the authorities could do a great deal to see that their own advice to the farmers is carried out. It would be much more effective than the suggested free labour activities planned for Fridays and Saturdays only. The Junior Chamber’s proposal, however, could easily be modified along the lines of a scheme aiming at the cultivation of ground for vegetables for home use. In this war of strange developments Great Britain, which incidentally is arranging for augmentation- of its own farming industry, is particularly anxious that the dominions should look to their own welfare, and it would seem that the vegetable garden offers scope for the immediate attention of willing workers. The Invercargill City Council has already made an official appeal to people to cultivate their gardens intensively, and has also completed preparations to plant forty-five acres of the city’s parks and reserves in potatoes, swede turnips, cabbages, and carrots, thereby winning high praise from the Minister of Internal Affairs. The example could easily be followed in Dunedin.