PRESS COMMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 November 1927, Page 3

PRESS COMMENT.

There are no lacking those who are in their own minds convinced that there exists in Taranaki, and in other parts of the Dominion, deposits of oil awaiting discovery in payable quantities. In these days of motor transport, and particularly of oil fuel ocean liners, the prodution of mineral oil means far more to the country than was ever previously the case. The discovery and operating of payable oil wells will therefore be heartily welcomed. and every facility should ho given to those who are prepared to bring the necessary capital into the country, as well as the apparatus required for thoroughly testing the oil prospecs of the Dominion.- —‘ Taranaki News.”

At the time of the recent tariff controversy, the Prime Minister urged tlio manufacturers of the Dominion to improve their industrial organisation and go in for specialisation. There is no doubt that this was practical and timely advice. Embryonic as our existincr industrial organisation is, we are in a position to profit relatively quite as much as America by eliminating needless elaboration and avoiding wasteful overlapping. It is the more necessary to make good use of these aids to industrial efficiency since it is obviofus that a full-bodied policy of tariff protection is unlikely to he acceptable to this country as a whole for a long time to come. The radical weakness of such a policy is that it leaves the farmer to a large extent out in the cold, particularly the farmer in a country like New Zealand, which must find oversea markets for the ■larger part of its primary produce.— “Wairarapa Age.”

Group migration is worth considering with reference to the development of forests aiul fisheries, as well as in connection with ordinary land settlement" Instead of being reduced to inaction by difficulties and obstacles, wo should be exploring eagerly all possibilities in this direction. We cannot afford to lie satisfied with the present domensions of our population, or to assume that it cannot he increased save at the cost of economic dislocation. With its population built up in tne right conditions, the Dominion would bo much better off economically than it is to-day, because it would ho much less dependent than it is at prel sent on outside markets. It would also 1- in a position of greater security from the standpoint of defence. There is no doubt that Zew Zealand will study its own interests in making a full contribution to the solution of the population problem as it affects the Empire at large.—“Wairarapa Age.”

It is essential to the national welfaretliat there should be a curtailment of the functions cf the State, a reduction of the strength and powers of the Departments, and a direction of national policy towards the fostering of the primary industries. One cannot look to the Liberal or National Parties for any assistance in achieving these ends, and we know of no group or organisation or faction that has' made those ends its chief concern. There is room, anil need, for a movement to further these ends, but that movement cannot take the form of an organisation directed against the Reform Party. Any organisation which sets itself to oppose the Reform Party and the Soj cialists will be of no advantage to . anyone but the Reds.—Christchurch “Press,”