The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28. TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 235, 28 September 1908, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28. TOWN AND COUNTRY.

In tile House the other evening an interesting debate was suddenly .sprung i upon members. Air. Ell, Air." Lauren-J son, Air. Lewis, and Air. Jiuiidu start ! ed to sing the praises of the country, ns opposed to city life. Jn tae country, ihcy said, a man was practically free from conventional and other trammels; the air was pure, healthful, bracing; he was closely in touch with nature in all its lovely forms; the sun, moon, and stars, hill and dale, forest and open plain, fruit and llowers, lie could sentimentalise to his hearts content; gazing over the neves, be they few or many, Unit, belonged to him he could stick his chest out with a perfectly glorious sense of independence. In spite of all heauliludcs aad exaltation, it could not be denied—indeed it .was admitiled— that the population In the country was steadily gravitating into tin; cities and towns.

The fact of ipcople lleeing from p.iraidise into the inferno uf city life seemed an inexplicable paradox, until Air. Hogg arose in the majesty of his wtsdoni to propound the riddle and make things plain. "There is another side to exclaimed the member for Jlastcrlon. And this side consisted in the fact that in the country there is a great deal of "mud aim isolation" and little .cointort; thnt man is a sociable and gregarious animal; that the work is hard and laborious; that man looks for a littfc enjoyment in his life, and what a variety of enjoyment* are provided in the towns! Then followed a very great deal aibout railways, roads and bridges whicn, without being „v?rcynical, one might justly suspect of rather astute electioneering. '\l'f there I were a little more expenditure in the country," cried AJ.r. Hogg, "it might be made to blossom as , v rose/' So when

the magnitude of the other side is summed up, it is all capable of fading away under the warmth of "a little more expenditure." When a man leaves his frame, his bench, or his stool in one of the cities of the Old World to seek for improved opportunities in a virgin land, or a land not exactly virgin yet still in its infancy, what does he expect !o luidlt Has he a right to expect another'frame, another bench, or another stool awaiting him, and that all he. has to do is to resume his old occupation? When a man goes forth to cast in his lot with the colonics he ought to be prepared to adapt himself to the conditions—whatever thej may be—of the now land to which he goes to build up for himself a new home. Hut for many years it has not been so wit) the immigrants who have come to these colonies south of the line; they 'have insisted on having the conditions made to suit them. They want to ■work a.t their trarlcß.aiid the whole poll icy of the Country had to be shaped so Hint they might be enabled to work at their trades, however wasteful that policy in a new land -iiay n,e: lu order to eater upon a competition with the cheap labor and improved.

and cheaper machinery ol uic Oiii World, high tariil's are imposed, sot that the cities keep continually swelling to the disadvantage of the produciag interests of the country, from, which our wealth is derived. This is particularly the case in Australia. Take Victoria, for ims'tance. The population of Victoria, to-day is a little over' u million, and there are 520,000 people in Melbourne, not to speak of Ballarat,. Bendigo, Geelong, and many o'urer towns. As a consequence the producing interests languish. Instead of a young land "wolving wealth, it has sought to transform the country into an old land. And what are the native industries of a young country! What constitute the 'native industries of New Zealand? The raising of gold (ind other minerals. Hie raising of grain and tile production or ;!ax, mutton, and dairy produce, timber, etc.; everything that can he derived from the'earth that is of value to man. These constitute the native industries of a young country. And these should he ciicouraged in every way. if it were possible, that every iinan and woman ,in I lie colony was employed in the work of production, inrinifeslily there would he ,vt least twice the amount of money (lowing into the country that there' is today.

ON THE FOURTH PAGE. Commercial. Correspondence. Farm and Dairy. Aerial Navigation Chilled Beef Trade. Te Ngulu-o te-Manu. Opunako Harbor Pill.