NEW FARMS ON OLD LANDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 760, 5 September 1929, Page 8

NEW FARMS ON OLD LANDS

ANOTHER good intention of the United Government has been disclosed with becoming modesty. This is the Administration's aim at placing thousands of additional farmers on Crown and undeveloped settlement land, together with a scheme for training New Zealand boys as sturdy, competent yeomen. The intention is a laudable one, calling' for sympathy and support, rather than for adverse criticism and even forthright censure. There is ample scope in the Dominion for more productive occupation of Crown and other lands. In all probability the politicians who make our laws and rough-hew our destinies do not realise clearly that, although this country is almost exactly the size of the United Kingdom, it has a population which is only that of Glasgow. Moreover, while favoured by the lowest mortality record in the world, the rate of natural increase in the Dominion’s population is pathetically low. Then, as everybody knows, the former stream of immigration has become a trickle. The strong inflow in past years has been dammed by chronic unemployment, excessive taxation, shackled enterprise and mediocre, if not sometimes stupid, administration. So, in a word or two, the United Government has a wonderful opportunity for the practice of true statesmanship. Can the Ward Administration be depended upon to succeed where others here and elsewhere have failed to make land settlement the foundation of progress and national prosperity? The answer had better be postponed indefinitely, for time aloxxe will provide the decisive reply. Meanwhile, the Government has broken the fallow ground of its party’s pre-election policy, and ploughed the first furrow toward the far boundary of land settlement. Jn plainer words, it has introduced in the House of Representatives the Land Laws Amendment Bill which seeks ways and means fox- promoting land settlement on a wide scale. It may he deserving of grateful cheers, but on its own face there is little evidence of or for joy. The provisions of the Bill, which, for months past, has been foreshadowed as the secret of the United Government’s magic foi- restoring the Dominion to delightful prosperity, run in the old ruts of procedure. The purpose of the Bill is as right as right can be, but the legislative machinei’y to secxxre achievement is both cumbersome and costly. The Government proposes to establish a lands development board with the Minister of Lands as chairman. All the other members will be departmental administrators and experts who, for years in similar activities, have not been able with the aid of politicians either to place many new farmers on the land or to keep experienced farmers from walking off the laixd in the disgust of bankruptcy. Still, the optimism of Hie United Government may inspire departmental experts to achieve great success for a new scheme of land settlement. The proposed boai'd will be given authority, if desired or necessary, to appoint one or more advisory committees. If wisely administered and piractised, the legislation embodied in the Bill would or should go far to settle a great deal of unoccupied Crown lands. Success in development and comfortable settlement of these idle and weed-infested areas will depend entirely on financial conditions. If the cost of preparation be too high there will be only a thin prospect of success. Australia has tried all sorts of land settlement schemes oix the basic principle of an initial expenditure of £1,500 to settle one family on a farm. Here, the cost usually runs to double that amount. Let it be hoped, however, that New Zealand with greater expenditure will do better than Australia has done at a lower basic outlay. As regards the scheme for training New Zealand lads as farmers, there is a gaping crack in the Government’s proposals. This is the suggestion that, after six months’ training, a rise in wages from 15s a week will depend entirely on the hoy himself. What about his employer? Shoxxld he refxise to pay more even for a first-class trainee must tlie boy knock the hard man down or return to the nearest city for better wages and fun at the picture-shows ?

THE EXPORT OF BRAINS

A DIFFICULTY that frequently confronts New Zealand employers was ventilated yestei'day by the Auckland Education Board which, in appointing new executives to the Training College, has discovered the difficulty of competing with overseas organisations that are prepared to offer salaries on a more liberal scale. The discussion showed that for such an important post as that of principal of the Training College, the salary is less than £I,OOO a year. Thus is illustrated the generosity of the State toward the servant in whose hands rests the heavy responsibility of training the teachers of its youth. The Training College is one of the largest educational institutions in the country. But the semi-pi'ivate secondary schools give their principals better material rewards and more handsome terms of appointment. In Perth, which is a considerably smaller city than Auckland, and the capital of a State far less populous than New Zealand, the authorities have decided to retain Dr. H. D. Fowler’s services by making him a better offex* than the Auckland Education Board could make. In many another Australian city the rewards for professional billets are considerably higher than they are here. This position not only prevents New Zealand from calling upon the best candidates from overseas, ,but also it introduces the danger, that when vacancies occur elsewhere the Dominion may lose her ablest men. It is a lesson that calls for a revision of our parochial notions. In nearly every phase of endeavour the executive New Zealander who conducts the same work as a man overseas, and discharges his responsibilities with at least an equal amount of acumen, integrity and skill, receives less for his labours than the Australian, South African, Canadian, American or Englishman.

The hue and cry raised over the £3.500 a year salary paid to the new railway manager, Mr. H. H. Sterling, is still fresh in the public mind. Yet in Victoria, a State with only one dominating city, and not a great many more people than there are in the whole of New Zealand, the railway manager’s salary has long been £5,000 a year. This Dominion’s reluctance to appreciate the material value of her best executive brains has cost her many able men. The high offices filled by Sir William Marris, Professor J. B. Condliffe, Dr. P. H. Buck, and a great many surveyors, engineers and scientists, demonstrate the loss the country has suffered in not retaining the services of these men for herself. Naturally it is impossible to keep everyone. Ambition alone leads many an able man overseas. But if, when his ambition to learn has been gratified. New Zealand could offer him a salary commensurate with his attainments aixd experience, in few cases would he he unwilling to return. The trouble is that the right figure is seldom offered. Until our sense of values is adjusted, we niust.be content to watch good men depart, or stay away.