Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 1921. AS OTHERS SEE US.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1921, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 1921. AS OTHERS SEE US.

It i» always interesting to hear the views of visitors to our fair land. This week we have had the English tourists with us for a brief interlude, and speaking to one of the party heard his eulogies of this country and its people. He liked the country and recognised that the people were doing their lest to developo it, and would make it a very worthy Britain of the south. Another visitor, Mr E. Philpot-Orowther of New South Wales lias been spying put the land,, and has been giving a Christchurch pressman his views on the country and its future development. He regards the future of New Zealand from a land settlement point of view and recognises the strides it is making in that direction. He favors primary production off the land in preference to industrial development, and in the former he says lies the great wealth of this country. Continuing his remarks he goes on to say that: ‘‘lf you go in for manufacturing, you will hi -e to send your travellers begging all over the world, and you will have industrialism. That is undesirable. Give the world what the world wants—primary produce. It is in industrialism that the annfrcliist breeds. Did you ever hear of anarchists on the land. I hai e been going through this country for two months, and I consider it is the best little country on the face of the earth. I think it is simply marvellous what this country lias done in the short time that it has been eolonised. If half as much had been done in America with a handful of people as you have done here with your handful of people, the Americans might tail;. Your roads, railways, towns and harbours are a credit to the country. The great feature of New Zealand is decentralisation. Everywhere you have prosperous little towns with prosperous hinterlands—such things as we have been praying for in Australia. One of the planks of the progressive Party (to which 1 belong) is decentralisation. You have got it. I would like to put a huge bomb under Sydney and make six towns out of it,” continued Mr Cjrowther. “There arc about 130,000 people on the land in New South Wales and tho rest are in the cities. The people on tho land have to carry on their hacks the burden of the rest of the population. It is a calamity. Australia is a giand country, but it is being wrongly run. Australia must ‘get on tho land.’ Instead of bringing her millions into the cities she should spend heir millions on development of the land. If she sold nine-tentlm of her racecourse and picture shows and put the proceeds into development of the land, she would do a wise thing. Time after time the farmer finds himselm without labour while the picture shows are crowded by men and women during the afternoon. The man who js on the land is the backbone of tlie country, and lie should have a big part in the government of the country. To do that he must organise himself. The trades unions have a paramount voice, because they are organised. The man on the land must organise too.” Regarding re-afforestation, Mr Crowiher said he was very pleased with what had been done throughout Canterbury. He understood that Canterbury, when the Dominion was first settled, was the part where there were fewest trees, but the settlors had certainly done sometiling very great to supply what Nature lacked, and in no part of the country had he seen but a fraction of the planting which was to be found in all parts of Canterbury. Generally speaking, ! however, the treatment of New Zealand forests was a tragedy. The trees I were given to New Zealand in trust, | and the people of the Dominion had ] no right to squander their fine ic-

sources. As a method of fostering nntive trees, Mr Crowther suggested that when re-afforestation was being carried out, say twenty pinus insignis should be grouped around each native tree, in order to give it shelteir. The pinus insignis could bo cut in thirty or forty years’ time, when the native tree would have attained sturdy growth, such as would fit it to stand by itself. The hills immediately round Lake Coleridge should be crowned with tress Mr Crowther Continued. The clouds which wreathed the hill-tops there did not condense. The trees would cause the clouds to condense and thus augment the water supply. It was a small point, but worth consideration. In Australia trees had been cut from the hilltops in many places, greatly to the detriment of the surrounding land. The trees condensed the'moisture which

trickled down to the lower levels, where it caused splendid pastures to spring up.