PREMIER’S MORRINSVILLE ADDRESS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 242, 21 June 1928, Page 4

PREMIER’S MORRINSVILLE ADDRESS.

UNDER the caption “ The Government and the Farmer,” the Christchurch Press has some interesting editorial comments upon the Premier’s address at Morrinsville, as published in this paper recently. The Prime Minister, the Press observes, gave an interesting outline of the work being done by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to help the farmer. The speech was not so much an enumeration of achievements as an indication of the great material benefit that will accrue to the country if the work is pushed ahead vigorously, for although the Department has accomplished much since its inception in 1926, it has only lately developed an organisation which will enable it to bring all the resources of science to bear on the different problems which are referrd to it. For the first time all the scientific research stations in New Zealand are linked together, over-lapping has been as far as possible eliminated, and connections have been established with similar institutions overseas. It should now be possible for the New Zealand farmer to get the knowledge and training that will enable him to compete on equal terms with the farmers of other countries in the world’s markets. Lincoln College and Massey College, if properly supported, will provide him with a training in the rudiments of his calling, and after that he has a competent research organisation to which he can refer his more baffling problems. But it must be remembered that the work is only beginning, and that unless it keeps pace with the general development of science it will not give the best results. Much has already been spent in establishing the Department -- of Scientific and Industrial Research, but the Government will have to keep spending money on it generously if it is to achieve its purpose. The money will not go to benefit a class, but to advance the prosperity of the whole community, for whatever the possibilities of secondary industries in New Zealand may be, our national wealth is at present drawn from the lend. We have natural advantages which make it possible for us to become one of the great primary producing countries of the world if we know what to do with them, and especially if successive Governments know. But it cannot be said too often or too plainly that any Government which neglects the primary producer betrays the country; that the farmer should have first place in all policies of all Parties, and that if the present Administration wishes to leave a permanent mark on the Dominion’s history it will not merely encourage primary production, but make the production of more wool and mutton and of better butter and cheese the fundamental plank of its platform.