THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 309, 8 February 1910, Page 4

THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE.

A striking article, showing how Britain might produce £00,000,000 worth of e £S s > poultry, butter, vegetables and cheese, which are imported into that country every year, is contained in the current issue of the Weekly Notebook, issued by the Small Ownership Parliamentary Committee, of which Sir Gilbert Parker, M.P., is chairman. In view of what has recently appeared in these columns regarding the English land problem, the references will be read with interest. The articles says:—"AYe have everything in our favor—soil, climate,. ready markets, the best breed of cattle, pigs and poultry, everything but one—system. And for the want of that we have lost our chances. Xo. not lost, we has literally thrown them away; and, in doing so, we have not even the cold comfort offered by freetraders that we are getting the goods cheap. Prices go up, but it is the ioreigner who reaps the benefit; it is we who pay. Nothing is impossible which is" within our control. And the causes of our failure are within our control. An eminent German authority, writing on British agriculture, asks: 'Why has not the British farmer been able to keep in his own hands the entire supply of those enhanced quantities of butter, eggs, poultry, fruit and vegetables which is markets require?' He finds the answer in two causes—in t'he drawback that the farmers are mainly tenants instead of owners, and because alike in the production of his supplies and in his method of disposing of them, the British farmer has a less -perfect system than that of his competitors. But these are causes whidii can be removed. Develop small ownership, to stimulate the energies of the farmer; organise agriculture, to obtain the fullest results of those energies. It is not impossible .to do these things. Remove the causes of failure, and success will take STs plat*."