THE DOMINION’S NEED.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 March 1926, Page 4

THE DOMINION’S NEED.

MORE PRODUCTION.

ADVICE FROM MR REEVES. WEEI.INOTUX, -March 15. Over a hundred leading business men of Wellington attended a luncheon given to-day to the Hon W. Re tuber

Reeves, when lie delivered an address •in “ New Zealand After Thirty Years.” .Mr He eves has re-visted New | Zealand after an absence of thirty vears and two months, and is not influenced by any party bias, consequently much importance attaches to the i opinions be expressed to-day. j Mr Reeves, who was received with j prolonged applause, said that be land-, ed in his native land in November last, j and during the following four months! bad travelled from Invercargill and. Riverton in the south to Dargerville! and Whangarei in the north, had talk- (

,d to all conditions of men. spending, many days in the open country, in bush lands and 111 towns and cities, , with a view to gaining an up-to-date j knowledge of men and conditions and I the outlook at first hand. | A TRANSFORMATION. .Most people who came to the Do-1 minion from America or Europe knew ; little or nothing about the past his- ; tor.v of New Zealand. He bad some ' advantage in that respect. There was ■ tt time when he knew New Zealand ; and when he had studied its people j as eloselv its tt man could. When lie.

left; for the Old Country he carried i tt way with him unfading pictures of i the land. These pictures had formed i and remained in Id's mind wherever ho | dwelt, so ho returned thinking of New I Zealand as he saw it thirty years ago. ■ in 1805. Ho could only say that the; result of his new impressions was thrill- ■ ing. He could not call it change, it wtis tin entire transformation. In places . there had been destruction of heauti-,

Ini forests, elsewhere there was treeplanting and gardening, cultivation and orchard planting. The scenery still was beautiful. He bad visited eighteen other countries, yet he was still of opinion that New Zealand was more beautiful than any other country in the world. When one thought of the outlines of the mountains, the contour of coasts and hays, and the progress of settlement, it was almost impossible to give them the full impression created in his mind of New Zealand. A HARRY RACE.

ft filled him not only with hope, hilt with pride at having belonged to such tt hind. It was not only material progress which had been made, great factories which had sprung up. hives of industry, the more scientific methods or the more efficient businesses, it was the appearance and attractive look of the houses and the sweet and bright appearance given to town alter town by neat buildings and open spaces, the gardens and narks and the line physique and healthy appearance of the people. He saw the Now Zealand race changed by distinct improvement, strong men, attractive women, amt bright, happy children, a taller and better race than when lie lived here, and all that was combined with signs of happiness and a great measure of confidence. The New Zealand people were a- happy race now. and were going to he in time people who would count. THE RIS I NCI GENERATION. ■ He had certainly heard folk talk about race decadence, and some had said that the young folk went about the country looking for a soft job. hut he had heard the same thing fifty years ago, and he was not sure that tlie young folk then would have had any objection to a soft job. it they could only have got one, hut the dilferencc was that there were very lew sinecures then, lie saw no signs of the alleged slackness and idleness, lie had seen men at work in all parts of New Zealand and it! very lew eases had lie witnessed the Faintest -sign of reluctance to do their job. In tbe exceptions inquiry proved that those concerned were not New Zealanders, nor had lltov been brought up in New Zealand. Owing to the spread of education the rising generation were more intelligent and more useful than their forefathers were thirty years ago, and that was a great achievement to the credit of New Zealand democracy. It meant a rise in the scale of civilisation. No democratic system he knew of had (hanged the face of tilings so hopefully as the development of New Zealand and New Zealanders. THE WEAK POINTS.

To quote on Americanism, he said lie had looked for “ ilie nigger in the wood-pile ” in the course of lii.s investigations. and he admitted that there tvere weak points to he discovered in Xew Zealand. They must he faced. There laid been very large dependence on loans, advances and mortgages, hilt boom prices hat! gone hy. Although he saw no signs of collapse unless they were going to face serious' complications. then the country would have to produce more, lie lmd seen a complaint published recently that tanners had to listen to lectures from those connected with financial institutions which paid a dividend every six months, but the. chairman of a large institution might he pardoned, even if fit paid a dividend every six months, lor referring to a question of really vital importance. A LARGE EXPENDITURE.

.Most of (heir huge public expenditure had been justified. He had carefully examined the expenditure on a large number of works in New Zealand— Government, municipal and private—and in only three instances found expenditure was injudicious. In one ease it was on the part of the Government, in another that of a local body, and in the third that of a private firm. The position of the money market was such that the Government would have to scale down in its expenditure, and municipal bodies would have to moderate their demands for money. In the past the effect on the country had been very good, hut public indebtedness had reached such a stage that it was necessary to he careful. As to trading business in towns, lie did not think there was much to worry about. I here was no overtrading which could not he put right ill a few months. Re saw no sign of any such crisis as justified anybody in becoming a scaremonger.

So far a* secondary industries were concerned they had the machinery. I skill and the organising power. The problem that faced increased secondary production was that of ‘ finding markets. I ntortunately this country had to export, therefore they must increase primary production. •MORE PRODUCTION ESSENTIAL. Tie had travelled rather more than 4000 miles in Xew Zealand during tlhe last few months, and his impression was that ns far as the country itself was concerned it was capable of greatly increased production. Soil and cli-| mate were such that much greater use might be made of them. Certainly a great, deal of the country was mountainous and broken, especially in the South Island, and he did not look to see a great increase of production in the immediate future. Tn the gum and pumice lands afforestation had a great future, but would not increase

the country’s output at once. Ho had seen redwood trees 00ft high in pumice country, but rapidly as they grew it had taken them twenty-two years to reach that stage. They had not yet solved the problem of turning pumice land into grass land. Small areas of gum country could under intensive cultivation yield good profits, hut improvement of large areas of pipe-clay was still a problem.. _ "What they had to

Took to was development of country already occupied, good or fairly good land, and" see that it was made to yield the best results. He had been in the .Middle Waikato and Upper Thames and the Hauraki country, covering about' 600,000 acres, a good deal of which was first-class land, or could he made so, which was not more than half as productive as it should be. He had spent six days there in order it' form an opinion as to its capabilities. lie had come to the conclusion that if the land was utilised as it might he. il should produce more than double

the present output. Then take the great stretch from Wnitara to Earaparaunui. Even there, though so much bad been done, lie. was impressed with its capacity for further development and increased production. HOLDINGS TOO LARGE. There were two things which were likely to prove obstacles. One was the heavy indebtedness of producers, and the other was the land not being subdivided as it should be. He "asked what was the remedy? All sorts ol suggestions had been made. One was rliaT the hanks had not treated farmers

liberally enough, but could the hanks remedy the position if they tried? He had gone carefully into the matter, and the result of his calculations had been to show that the- indebtedness of rural producers to the hanks was only one-tenth to one-eleventh ot their whole indebtedness, so that farmers, graziers and market gardeners owed ten times as much to outsiders as they j owed to the banks and no action taken by the banks would vitally affect the position. He had seen farm after farm Where the trouble was that the farmer had too much land and was not able to employ labour where it could he utilised profitably, so that his property was standing still or actually going hack. The Government had tried to do what it. could and had lent farmers ait enormous amount of money at a low rate of interest, as well as instituting the moratorium, hut the difficulty still existed. Noxious weeds wore getting tt hold and were- becoming a danger to the country, so great only those who had been through the islands could understand. He noticed

the. other day that the .Minister of Lands suggested that the remedy was a sane and, gradual subdivision ol land. ]To himself believed this could be done without settling them with a miserably poor peasantry. He thought they could double the number of cultivators. He saw no other way ol gradually increasing the production of this eountrv. EI d‘X TRK ’A L DEV.EJ.O PM ENT’. Referring to the development of electrical production, Air Reeves said he had seen one or two schemes which might have been ahead of require-, ments. hut as the whole they gave great promise for the lutiire. Development of irrigation, especially in Central Otago, was wonderful, and the area affected in the way was giving splendid results. which he could not have believed possible il lie had not seen it.. He could not help smiling when he heard of wrangling about Lite a mount naitl for wafer rales. That would not stop things, so great were the benefits obtained from the use of

the water. It, was not only what was being done with fruit-growing, but the advantages gained in the production of lucerne, clover and grass were enormous. NO GROUND FOR ALAR.M. Air Reeves saw not the slightest reason for alarm or for n scare in regard In the prospects of New Zealand. He did not see social or political trouble ahead such as was visible in other countries, lie had unchanging faith in the intelligence} and moderation of the native-horn edueat-

ed workers of Xew Zealand, and he was glad to see amongst employers a, much broader and more tolerant feeling than often obtained thirty or forty years ago. Xow there was a null'll better spirit towards employees, and an attitude of reasonableness. Xew Zealand was no land for class warfare. Of course, the worker had his grievances, luit there was none which was not susceptible to civilised and peaceful arbitration. !'Loud and continued applause.)