Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1896. The Levin State Farm.

Manawatu Herald, 25 August 1896, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1896. The Levin State Farm.

A few issues ago we gave a short review of the opinions held by many members of Parliament on the position ot the Levin State Farm, opinions formed from inspection. These opinions have fully confirmed every word we have written on the subject, and it seems a pity that the Government turns a deaf ear to the protests of both their supporters and opponents. Mr J. G. Wilson, in his speech in the want of confidence debate, did his best to urge the Government to set up an independent committee to inquire into the whole thing, and suggested that Messrs Duncan, Buddo, McLachlan, Lang, Montgomery, Massey, Buchanan and McNab would be a satisfactory selection, a3 they had a special knowledge of farming. We are pleased to see that Mr Wilson was not backward in pointing out the absurdity of the present position, as in Hansard he is reported to have said : — ln the first pace the initial mistake was that m^n were sent up and told to build their own houses. There was no plan given them, and as they were not men of means they had to go to the storekeepers, who built the houses, and the men had, as a further result, necessarily to pay 25 per cent more than if the Government had built the houses for them by contract. Now the men have left, and the Government have had to the dwellings at a loss ; and 1 hear now that a number of them are being broken up and used for dairy sheds. Although Mr Reeves last session declared that the manager was as good as they could wish to have, that manager has now gone away and another is in his place. With the management of the farm I do not propose to say anything, but I desire to say a word or two about the ex-Minister of Labour. Ido not think, Sir, that he has given the matter fair treatment, and I expected ha would have shown more interest in it, seeing that he always declared himself strongly in favour of labour measures. As far as my knowledge goes, Mr Beeves went to the farm only twice. On one occasion when I asked about the farm, the Minister said, " Look at the Labour Beport," and on turning to that report I could find only a few sentences about it. A great many honourable members are particularly anxious to seß the experiment tried— myself for one— and it is not fair to the experiment that the Minister should have given it such scant interest. John Burns tells us that these experiments will be a failure, but I think with fair management they will not fail. The Minister of Labour, who, I understand, is now the Premier -how, Sir, can he possibly take an interest in the farm when he has so many irons in the fire ? It is absolutely impossible for him to devote a proper amount of time to it. I believe that since he assumed office, six months ago, he has been there on a cursory visit, probably for election purposes. Take Mr Tregear next. He is the head of the department, and we all know his work and admire many of his writings ; but I do not think that he has much knowledge about the farming business, nor does he evince much interest in it. I have not heard of Mr Tregear being at the farm. Then, there is Mr Mackay, who has shown an active interest in the work, but he has been given no decided plan on which to work. The whole thing, therefore, drifts on year after

year without any settled plan, and without any active interest being taken by those who should devote time and thought to the subject.