THE PUTARURU PRESS. ’Phone 28 – – – P.O. Box 44 Office – – – – Oxford Place THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1929. THE LAND QUESTION.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 270, 10 January 1929, Page 4

THE PUTARURU PRESS. ’Phone 28 - - - P.O. Box 44 Office - - - - Oxford Place THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1929. THE LAND QUESTION.

IT cannot be said that the first move of the Minister of Lauds, Mr. Forbes, inspires confidence. Ke proposes to call together at an early date the various commissioners of lands to discuss land policy. The move is quite in keeping with Mr. Forbes’ political career, however, which has not been marked by any creative ability or the promulgation of new ideas. It is very doubtful whether it will be productive of any good. A young country like New Zealand, which is dependent on the products of the land for 95 per cent, of its income, must above all else have a bold and progressive land policy. It was failure to produce such a policy as much as anything else which wrecked the Coates Government. The land question will wreck other Governments unless it is tackled boldly from new angles.

Mr. Forbes’ proposal was tried by the late Mr. Guthrie, when Minister of Lands, years ago. It ended in failure ; in fact those who were behind the scenes said it was farcical.

The greatest captain of industry in the world—Henry Ford—states that he never employs experts, because they are too fixed in their ideas. He argues that to be successful he must have men with new ideas, men who are not trammelled by tradition. Accordingly he seeks creative intellects, puts them in the department he desired to reorganise and tells them to improve it, giving them a .free hand. His methods have been wonderfully successful ; they are the methods of all big industrial leaders. i

The land question in New Zealand has reached such a stage that it needs a new angle of vision. To solve the trouble it is not so much the expert that is needed—much less the expert trained among red tape—as the keen creative business brain which can eliminate all waste. That is the root cause of the whole trouble—wasteful educational methods — waste lands near railways—wasteful methods of selection—waste in financial administration—waste in roading policies—waste in marketing—waste ii. direct and indirect taxation—waste in %yip.ing methods. Commissioners of Crown lands will never solve .these problems, and their true solution will not come until our whole educational system is remodelled on lines which will create an agricultural atmosphere in our schools. At present our schools turn out some 30,000 to 40,000 scholars yearly, most of whom have been inculcated with subjects utterly useless to them in- after life and which cause the big majority to look for “ collar and cuff ” jobs. There is no higher calling than that of the farmer, yet it is still looked upon by many as the occupation for the fool of the family. With 95 per cent, of the nation’s wealth coming from the land we need to foster a different and truer perspective in which agriculture is placed first and foremost in its proper position.

It is sheer nonsense for some politicians to say that higher tariffs will provide the occupations necessary for our own children who leave school yearly. No matter how high the tariff barriers are made, little advance will be shown, for it takes years of experience to compete' with P the world in the secondary industries. Further, New Zealand has not got a sufficient population to provide the home markets that would be necessary. In agriculture, however, the Dominion is the most favoured country in the world. Look where one will there is no country so blessed by nature as New Zealand is so far as farming is concerned. It is to the land that our legislators must look for the country’s future—a land which, despite Mr. McLeod’s dictum, is as yet unscratched so far as real farming on business lines is concerned, and a land which will yet support more people per acre than any other country ip the world when ’ this essential fact is once grasped. Mr. Forbes’ method has already been tried and found wanting. His proposals must go deeper and strike at root causes. ’ They should commence in our schools, where our educative system should be largely modelled with a view to creating an agricultural sense, &o that the Do-

minion's greatest asset may be made the fullest use of. Farming offers an excellent opportunity for those now compelled to seek “ blind alley " jobs ; it offers golden returns to the trained mind. It is the Government's job to see that all possible obstacles are removed so that every acre can be turiied to account and our youth encouraged to look up to and enter the calling from which the bulk of our national wealth is derived.