FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 882, 28 January 1930, Page 8

FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND

TWO YEARS’ RESEARCH WORK PLANNED PROBLEMS FOR STUDY Two years’ research into land utilisation in New Zealand is to be undertaken by the Auckland University College Council on be. half of the Institute of Pac.fie Relations. whose council ha* voted £4OO a year for this pur. pose. The plan, which was advanced by Professor Belsliaw, of Auckland, was one of the eight schemes accepted for perfoi-T. ance at the institute's last convention in Tokyo. The fund will be administered by the University College Council which, yesterday, took the initial steps by appointing Mr. F. B. Stephens, at present tutor-organiser for the W.EjL in the Waikato, to undertake the field investigation at a salary of £l5O a year. The council also arranged to budget to the extent of £650 a year toward expenses, expecting either a subsidy or a grant from the Government. The scheme, as outlined by Professor Belshaw, is to make a two years’ investigation of factors influencing land utilisation in this Dominion. The initial steps will include an examination of the influence of national conditions on forms of tenure, supply of labour, transport, and similar facts. It is hoped at a later stage to extend the scope of study to an investigation of the reactions of methods of processing and marketing on production efficiency, together with a study of problems of land deterioration and settlement and of the interrelation of farming and afforestation. A number of studies have been made into certain problems relating directly and Indirectly to land utilisation, Professor Belshaw says, but no attempt has been made to relate these studies to each other. Surveys of existing methods of land utilisation are claimed to be almost entirely non-existent and the topics indicated have been only cursorily examined. The ultimate purpose of the proposed investigation is to present as far as possible a composite picture of New Zealand farming and to relate the various problems of organisation and technique to the specific problem of land utilisation. New Zealand has attempted experiments in land taxation, settlement, and compulsory economic control. Professor Belshaw says, bat the results have not been adequately studied and farmers have developed methods of farming practice in some eases unique while important experiment* in organising companies fer afforestation, tobacco growing and cultivation of New Zealand flax are being attempted. The points on which the professor considers the research work will be valuable are these;—(l) Clarifying problems of New Zealand farming; (2) indicating the probable surplus producing capacity in the future: (3) indicating the manner in which problems of land utilisation have been tackled up to the present, with the probability that some of the methods attempted may be suggestive to other Pacific countries which, so far, have little knowledge of New Zealand conditions and have given little attention to them; (4) in linking the university with a research project of fundamental importance and thereby encouraging continuance of research in the future.