The Daily News. FRIDAY, AUGUST 19. EDUCATION AND ORGANISATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 112, 19 August 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, AUGUST 19. EDUCATION AND ORGANISATION.

it is refreshing for New Zealand to have ( a tarmer-Uovernor, although a gieat landholder like Lord Islington could be hardly placed in .the same category as the man who forces liis living out ot ' the soil in New Zealand by his own ap- : plication. The Governor has at least recognised that when he appeals to tne farmer, he appeals to the man who lias jiiot only made New- Zealand, but who ! supports all the people who live in it. Although Lord fianfurly had practical experience of the land, it is remembered thait ihe rarely referred to it. We believe there was no occasion on which Lord Plunket recognised that, but for farming, there would be no need of a Governor. Lord Islington, at the Auckland Metropolitan Winter Show, said that the two essentials to successful farming were organisation and education. Both are truisms, and very wholesome ones. He said' that New Zealand did not now believe that farming success came from "beating one's neighbor," and if he concedes the point that a large number of landholders hold the land merely for a rise, this remark will pass muster as an excellent truth. Lord , Islington is credited with being a good landlord. The send-off his tenants gave him when he left the Old Country proved that he was most popular. He says, however, that lack of organisation has militated against the success of farming in England. It is, of course, the territorial landholders, their dominance and influence over tenant farmers, that prevents organisation. Every possible precaution is taken to ensure a continuance of the conservative policy that places "his lordship" first, the tenant's farm second, and the tenant himself last. The fact that owners are conservative makes stewards conservative and tenants as conservative as the stewards. The progressive farmers in Britain are the freeholders, who do not swear fealty to territorial magnates. The system of huge dissected estates, partly held for revenue produced by tenants, and partly for the amusement of the hereditary owners, must never be introduced into New Zealand if organisation is to effect its best results. The co-operation of New Zealand Crown tenants or small freeholders is splendid, because it spurs enterprise, arranges prices, and induces emulation. Co-operation among the tenant farmers of huge landholders at Home would most assuredly be fought by territorial magnates, and if it were not fought, the probability is that the landlord' would tax the tenant for his enterprise, just in the same way that an occasional New Zealand landlord will raise the rent on a tenant for improving a property. In New Zealand the essential element is farming, and necessity spurs farmers to adopt those means whiqh are going to produce the best returns. Although the hide-bound old-timer is hard to move, the younger generation who are not too proud to farm must take the advice of the Governor and of every other sane individual to "get agricultural education." The method that pro- ' duced the opprobious epithet "cockatoo" may be very well in a quite new country with illimitable spaces on which to grow crops or stock, but the scratching-the-ground theory, leaving the rest to Providence, is now abandoned. The point of view to be taken by the landholder who uses the land for ats just purposes is (that with the same trouble he might tickle out of half his land more than he gets out of the whole of it by haphazard methods. Intense cultivation is a necessity in a closely-people country that depends on the land. Intense cultivation is not very popular in England, for the reason that that country is more interested in using raw products than in growing them. Scientific methods reduce the drudgery of farming, and these methods are as- distinct from the ancient way of pushing the ground open with a forked stick as a motor lorry is an advance on the bullock dray with wooden wheels. Intense cultivation is a necessity in France, in Belgium, in China, in Japan, and in many other countries, because the population is so dense that the real use ha 9 to be made of the land. As we have pointed out before, in Japanese agricultural districts;, the small* holders regard land as such a precious possession that they have no fences, cultivating to the last inch of the boundaries. It has lately been pointed o«t that in Lombardy, which contains a» area of only 9000 square miles, about five million people live, the living of the community coming from intense agriculture. It is only necessary to mention that Lombardy contains the provinces of Cremona, Mantua, Como, Brescia and Milan to illustrate the fact that it not only produces wealth and happiness for a larger population than is contained in Australasia, but genius in art, litera.ture, and the graces of life. Lombardy , could be tucked away in an Australian , county, or indeed on the single holding of one man in Australia. One could pack a hundred Lombardys into New Zealand, where it is common to hear the opinion that a few imported persons will wreck the social economy. Where intense culture has taken place in either Australia or New Zealand, the cultivators have generally been rich experimentalists, who also hold large areas that are not intensely cultivatecr. The spur to intense culture is close settlement and a State that the land is the basis [ of all prosperity, that an inducement by 'educational methods for farmers to produce every blade possible is the finest policy of insurance against national povery, and the surest method of obtaining 'a large population of healthy and happy folk. \

j CURRENT TOPICS. I r ADVAiNCE AUSTRALIA! lit is evident that even the enemies of the Federal Labor Ministry can find little ' fault with the dijgnified, progressive and (fair method) ojf doing State business . that has characterised the Cabinet. Even Tory British politicians have been surprised that the Federal Ministry have caused no revolution, and that the Commonwealth is not steeped in blood. The Federal Ministry's ideals are exactly the ideals of conscientious men, whatever their political color may be, and here is apparently the basis on which Mr Fisher, the Premier, is working: The land for the people and not the people for the landlord, invitation to immigration, the

health of the young, the decentralisation of the population of the cities, and the monetary encouragement of infant industries. And there is the point. A deputation waited on the Federal Minister. of Trade and Customs the other day« praying for the interest of the Government in the oil industry. This reminds us that Taranaki has an oil industry, and also prays for the interest of a Government. The Federal Minister indicated tha,t the Government was going to offer a gongeous inducement, £50,000 (£IO,OOO each year for five years) for the production of refined kerosene in Australia. This ought to cheer oil people in Australia, and it may give the New Zealand Government an inkling of what folk think of the importance to a country of the oil industry. That refined kerosene can be produced at Moturoa has of course been verified. Although the Hon. JR. McKenzie did not, when he mentioned that Government funds would probably be available for gold prospecting, name the oil industry as worthy of State aid, he will probably be convinced when he visits New Plymouth. If the New Zealand Government can find it in their hearts to imitate the Federal Government, it will be a compliment to Australia, which frequently imitates New Zealand. HOSPITABLE AMERICA. The cost of living in New Zealand cities is not small, and there is frequent and necessary complaint. A traveller who ha 9 lately been "doing" America shows that New Zealand prices are light as thistledown compared with those demanded by the American trader. He breakfasted in a hotel one morning, and desiring poached eggs, assimilated a couple. He was charged Is Sd for them, but found than an extra fourpence had to be paid for the toast on which they rested. In 'New York, a sirloin beefsteak costs a modest dollar, and a meal from roast lamb will run you to the extent of three shillings. If you are foolish enough to ask for duck, you must have four shillings to pay for it, and a helping of chicken will cost you 3s 6d. Other prices are: Plain plate of every-day potatoes Is 3d, rice pudding the same, cheese Is Gd. If you dare call for celery with your cheese this will make the bill 3s. You can get a plate of porridge for the small sum of Is 6d, and "luxuries" generally cost a couple of dollars a toothful. The man who gives the woeful list mentions that when a Scotsman was asked to pay 2s for a plateful of custard and 6s for a lobster salad, his language was the worst he had ever heard- in his life. A short ride in a taxi costs 3s, and the lowest tram fare is 2y 2 d. There are other fearful evidences of the monstrous charges in New York. Our own opinion is that the gentleman did not know New York, and that if he had done so he could have fed as cheaply as is possible in London, Sydney or any other city. His mention of the exorbitant charge of •2Vgd for a tram ride shows that he does not understand the great city's system. All rides in New York are 2%d, whether you travel one block or twenty. If you are sufficiently wary you can ride half a day for five cents by transferring. A modest New Zealander who did not mention that he was a millionaire while in New York returned to this country with the greatest possible admiration not only for New Yorkers themselves, but for the system of doing business, and the remarkable cheapness of things "if you only knew where to look for them."