AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN

Hokitika Guardian, 25 March 1930, Page 8

AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN

PERIOD OK DEPRESSION

LORI) RLEDISLOE EXPLAINS

WELLINGTON, .March 21

While agreeing that farming pursuits had occupied a very large part of his SiUiiewhat busy life, his Excellency the Governor-General, replying to the wclonifi extended to him in the Town Hall last night, said he had not come to

New Zealand to pose as an expert, but rather in the hope that he would learn something.

“Reference lias been made on more than one occasion, and it has certainly been made to-night,” said his Excellency, “to my association with the farming industry in the Mother Land, f want, ladies and gentlemen, to make it perfectly clear to you that although amid a large number of industrial activities'as well as Parliamentary activities agriculture and animal husbandry have formed no small part, 1 do not come to this country rich in (fertile lands and agricultural knowledge and experience with the idea that I am going to teach anybody on the land anything. Still less do I come here as what is sometimes described as a pundit. I come here to learn. After all the conditions here differ from the conditions at Home. They differ in one respect ; the farmers here, although being farmers they no doubt grumble enjoy some small measure—of course L dare not exaggerate—of prosperity. 1 am sorry to say that in the Old Country farmers are passing through a seriously depressed experience, and I am sure the farmers throughout New Zealand must feel sympathy for their iel-low-agiiculturists on the other side of the worlc.

‘‘Agriculture is the leading industry ul' every great country, and 1 say that with no hesitation in an urban community such as tins. As we pointed out at the International Economic Conference at Geneva in 1927, it is to the advantage of the world at large and to every country in the world that they should recognise what was described as the essential inter-dependence of the agricultural industry and commerce. A very great British statesman said feme sixty years ago, ‘A Nation which neglects its agriculture is doomed to decay.’ Here in Wellington you have a certain number of secondary industries very largely based on the ordinary :i ciustries. I am sure you will t gyee with me when I suggest that it is in the interests of every growing city, I such as Wellington, that your farmers should be reasonably prosperous.”