The Southern Cross. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Fed. 10. A FARMER’S VIEWS.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 46, 10 February 1894, Page 8

The Southern Cross. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Fed. 10. A FARMER’S VIEWS.

Mr Cowie, President of the Winton Farmers’ Agricultural and Pastoral Association, treated his fellow-mem-bers to a capital address on the occasion of their last annual meeting. It is fully reported in another column. It dealt for the most part with their duties and opportunities. Whether it will have any effect remains to be seen. The probabilities are that it will. Indications have not been wanting of late which show that farmers as a class are becoming more alive to the important place they occupy in the body politic. But they are proverbially slow r to move. Except at election time it is difficult to stir them up to concerted action, unless, indeed, it is on some matter which directly concerns their pockets. Herein they differ not from the rest of the world. A desire to advance Humber One, tempered by a wish, frequently very faint, to do a little for others at the same time, is everywhere potent, disguise it as we may; but granting this, it is none the less cheering to note a greater inclination for combined effort on public questions among our farming friends. Whatever affects their w’ell-doing reacts sooner or later on the towns, so that even on the low grounds of expediency and selfishness they deserve encouragement. But to return to Mr Cowie. He had a good deal to say about the representation of his class in Parliament. He says, in effect, that he is tired of lawyers and new r spaper men —that although glib of tongue, and wdlling to talk all night, if need be, they turn out w T ork in the shape of law's that are more or less botched. We confess to a good deal of sympathy with Mr Cowie’s contention. A plausible address and a glib tongue too often carry the day against sterling merit. But we take leave to doubt if anything in the shape of class representation will effect a change for the better. If Mr Cowie and his confreres were to decide tomorrow' to return a candidate after their own heart, they w ould probably pitch on a man who w'ould, on reach-

I ng Parliament, do the very things that they reprobate in some of the old Parliamentary hands. How often have we seen a candidate returned pledged to accomplish all sorts of reforms, a man, it may be, who has denounced extravagance and jobbery in. high places. But hear him after his first session. He was only one in an Assembly of 70 or so —he thought it better to accept half-a-3oaf than no bread ; if they wanted a precedent for his action he could show how, ever so many 3'ears ago. Mr So-and-So acted in precisely the same way ; and so on. Everybody will recognise the picture. No I Not a farmer, not a business man, not a newspaper man, not a lawyer will, singly or in combination, serve the best interests of the country. What are wanted, come they from town or from country, are men who can rise superior to party, and vote straight—not for the benefit of this or that class, but for the good of the community as a whole. All the same Mr Cowie deserves thanks for his thoughtful address ■ —■ anything is better than stagnation.