HATS OFF TO THE PIONEERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 30502, 24 June 1926, Page 2

HATS OFF TO THE PIONEERS.

(By the Wanderer). Here we are out in the great open spares, far from the glamour of town and city, out where men and women are enduring the hardships of a life that is inseparable from the breaking in of the great spaces, valleys, hills and bushlands, also the areas of the great Hauraki swamps, which latter have been won back from nature, to become someday a great agricultural and dairying district. It does one good to be able to grasp the hands of those who are helping to build up the production and resources of this Dominion—men and women whose time and lives are spent not in the sole hope of immediate gain, but who, in time to come, will lie able to look hack with pride on their efforts which have woinbaek from the soil, the reward of honest toil. Here we are, we of the towns and cities, erecting the wheels of industry in this wilderness to deal with the product of the soil and swamps. Yes, it is a lesson learnt by some, unknown to the majority of town dwellers, that it is by (he efforts of these pioneers of industry and agririltnre that they receive a direct benefit. Yet how many appreciate I lie fact ? It ’s out hack, when you are up against it, that the sterling worth of those people come into-be-ing. It’s out hack, where you find (rue comradeship among (lie pioneers of the present and past, a comradeship that binds each to the mutual good of all, without thought of personal gain. Could this same •spirit only be engendered in the towns to-day instead of the spirit of distrust, greed, and intrigue that goes on, where each knows each others business, and each of them, knows but little of the great hearts upon whose efforts they depend—the pioneers. Were it not that there tire those born to-day, who are willing and are going to the outbacks, to win from bush and swamp, fern, hill and valley, that which the great Creator has placed there for the use and benefit of man, then our outback would only he on a par with some of those, who look with scorn at the honest sons and daughters of toil. Too often have I heard disparaging remarks passed at those who live by tilling the soil, but give mo the contact of these people, they who know what it is to face all the difficulties and misfortunes that beset their paths, rather than the un travelled, and small minded town dweller, who knows not the patience and (courage of those who go outback. It takes a stout heart to face the facts, but when I see these people going through the hardships, I say they deserve all they bring from the soil as a reward. I have heard the wails of the town dweller, who maybe, had to hunt for a house. I have seen them almost hysterical, but I have yet to meet the grousers on the soil. I have seen them in tents, in shacks, whares, call them what you will, but I have seen that smile which puts, difficulties in the back-ground—a smile that beams patience and determination to win through. But in the towns we have those who would take the life’s work from these pioneers, and make them vassals of a state sought to be run by those who are about as much fitted to run the State as they are lo go outback, and carve a home in the wildernesses. I am one who has 1 seen the efforts of the settlers, I am also one who has listened to the political agitator. I have had the gibe thrown at me, “traitor,” but I can hurl back the saying: “Wise men change there opinions, but fools never.” I have travelled much, I have studied much, and I have come to the conclusion from what I have seen, that lie who goes back on the land, be it agricultural or industial, is entitled to any reward that comes from bis efforts, and it comes only by had, honest toil, not by magic, but by brain and sinew, and to those indomitable heats, 1 raise my hat, and extend the hand of genuine sympathy in their efforts.