Feilding Star. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1885.

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 58, 24 October 1885, Page 2

Feilding Star. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1885.

Small Farms England is following the example of this colony, and the gradual creation of a peasant proprietary has become a subject of attention to statesmen of all parties. The idea is now entertained, and its importance recognised by men of the most opposite political opinions and social interests. There may be differences of opinion as to the terms and nature of the arrangements under which the thing is to be instituted, but there is agreement that it shall be set going. In England the towns feel more and more the want of a rural back. There is overproduction in the towns, and underproduction in the country. In order to restore a proper equilibrium, a peasant proprietary is to be created as in France. The Auckland Herald in treating of this subject, which is so interesting t» us as the centre, almost, of the Small Farm A» o.iations now being formed on this coast, very pointedly remarks that in these colonies we give more attention to commerce than to agriculture — to the exchange of commodities than to their production of husbandmen. Already in this new country is experienced that loss of balance between town and country which is complained of in England. And we hear of the difficulty of rectifying it, because farming does not pay — from two causes. One is the cost of hired farm labor and the difficulty of getting it, and the other is found in the low prices of wheat and all present staples. Both are obstacles to farming on a large scale ; and even where the labor difficulty is surmounted by the owner and his family tilling their small holdings, the low prices offer little reward. But this suggests the question, Can we do nothing more profitable than grow corn and cabbages ? la the Waikato the farmers have gone in for beet sugar raising and fruit growing, to supply their jam factory. Further north, they have, in Hokianga, under the direction of Mr Fedehli, commenced the production of silk, and the canning and preserving of fruit, all work which may be performed by the women and children of a family. In our Small Farm Associations, where the land is suitable and easily accessible when they are properly settled by families, each cultivating its own allotment, and with a few experts to guide them in combining the novel highpaying husbandry with that which is now familiar, it would do more than anything to rectify our agricultural position. It would give a new value to land, and lay the foundation of that large rural population which is wanted to support the wholesome growth of the towns.