WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 June 1917, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

LAND SETTLEMENT. AG-IUCU I.TUBAL EDUCATION (Our Spocial Correspondent)

WIFjLLINKTON, June 1

The Hon. W. D. S. .MacDonald has returned from Australia with a lot of information concerning "hat the State and Federal Governments are doing in the way of land setticm-.ii and agricultural education, but he declines to express any opinion as m lriw. the Commonwealth compares with New Zealand in these respects. “Both countries are recognising more fully than ever before the vast importance of land settlement,” lie said in reply to a, pointed question this afternoon, “and their conditions nnft circumstances are so different, it would be unfair for a visitor to draw’comparisons in which all his bias would he on the side of his own country.” But whatever his bias may be, the. Minister of Agriculture is not 'grudging in his ’appreciation of the .effort it* Australia is making to attract pcopkjfl towards the laud and to assist them’ in obtaining the best results win-;: they get there. He waxes eloquent in his praise of its system of agricultural education, of the generous administration of its land laws, and of the schemes it is promoting, for converting the returned soldiers, mostly taken from the crowded c-itiics, into contented rural producers.

NEW ZEALAND’S OWN CASE. But while speaking of what Australia is doing with some diffidence, the Minister discusses the position »n New Zealand quite frankly. lie cm.-s not take a pessimistic view of the conditions that will prevail after the war, hut ho believes they will impose upon the people o fthe dominion a measure of responsibility which will tax their courage and their resources to 'the utmost. Now is the time to lit- pn—parihig for this ordeal. Mr MaMlonald recognises there are many political stiestions now held in. suspr.no which will be open for discussion after the war is definitely won, and he has’ no desire to prevent their, discussion, but he sees above and beyond all those questions the necessity of rehabilitating the finances and 'industries of the country and of stimulating its trade and commerce. The Dominion will he left with an enormous increase in its debt, entailing a large increase-in taxation and demanding an earnest; and sustained effort on the part of the* people who have to find the money. The Minister, as lie reiterates himself, is not- pessimistic about the future, lint he wants the people to realise the facts.

more production. Air MacDonald’s owm confidence is based on a firm faith in the productive capacity of the country. “Settlement, more settlement, and still name settlement,” which would mean production, more production and still more production is the burden of his appeal to the public. He is not Minister of Lands in the* National Government and, it is scarcely necessary to say, he does not suggest even by a gesture that he has any fault to find with the policy of his colleague who holds that portfolio; but it will be interesting to learn by and what adelitiional facilities lie would provide for carrying his proce*pt into genera, practice. In the meantime, as Minister of Agriculture, he has various opportunities to assist the farmers, and a must he said to his credit he is turning them-to good account. But one of the wasteful economies practised by the Agricultural Department, for which Uio Minister himself may h« largely responsible, is a lack ol enterprise in advertising itself. One has to search through a pile ol departmental papers, separating the grain from the chaff, and become a constant reader of.the “Journal of Agriculture” to get any adequate idea of what Mr MacDonald and the members of bis staff are doing for the man on tinland. .AORTGUI/!’ V RAT, ED UCA'I’ION.

Take I’or instance, the- question oi agricultural education. How many farmers, who, of course, are not the only persons concerned, know that at tiie Central Development Farm at Wernroa they can K* t without any cost to themselves a training for their sons which for all practical purposes is as good as the education they would receive at the Canterbury Agricultural College at 'Lincoln P The Education Department did advertise a number of bursaries iu connection with thif institution, but the average farmsir would be the last person in the world to read such an announce- 1 ment. Then there are a dozen experts attached to tho Department who are rendering iinvaluableil services! to tjlic comparatively few farmers who consult thorn. They are ready to give information and advice on any subject within their sphere, and their sphere is a very wide one, but probably not 20 per cont of the farmers in this country know of their existence. What is wanted is wide and persistent publicity for the work the Department is doing. Given this it would prove a very r*al and affective factor in turn-

ing the public mind to the land and in bringing about the conditions which Mr MacDonald and other observant people consider necessary for the salvation of the country.