The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18. AN IMPORTANT DELEGATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 162, 18 October 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18. AN IMPORTANT DELEGATION.

It is more than likely that the Scottish Agricultural Commission now visiting Australia will come to New Zealand. The Commission, the majority of the members of which have been through Canada, Denmark and Ireland, is probably the most important delegation of agriculturalists which has been sent out from Britain, and certainly the most noted that has travelled to this part of the world. Sir Carlaw iMartin, the president of the band of agricultural Scots, gave to a representative of the 'Sydney .Daily Telegraph. an interesting account of the object of the Commission and the work done in other countries. "In 1Q04," said Sir Carlaw Martin, "Lord Pentlafid, then Mr. John Sinclair, member of Parliament for Forfarshire, conceived the idea of sending a number of his constituents to Denmark with the view of learning any methods of cultivating and working up and 1 marketing dairy produce that could be profitably imitated in Scotland. The idea grew in his hands until it assumed the shape of' a commission of nearly forty men, most of whom were practical farmers, and who were all concerned in the land question, and were representative of the larger proportion of the counties of Scotland. In Denmark, which is a small nation, numbering little over two millions, the people living on contracted areas, farming is predominantly j. done on the system of small holdings. Farmers there are cultivating with great skill intensively. Dairy stock has been scientifically evolved until it has become a first-rate utility breed. The cows are under inspection, and the whole system of milk-production is carried on in a network of co-operation. Local committees, widening into district committees, and these again into larger ones until the nation can almost be called an agricultural unit, have been formed, the object being to supply the foreign market with all products of farm and field in such a way as to yield the highest posj sible return to the original farmer. The feature of the system is, of course, the • associated effort, showing itself in cooperative creameries, bacon factories, and committees for fixing prices. The results of the commission's observations were published' in a report which, it was believed, had some value in spreading sound information as to what a small, welldirected, thoroughly-trained nation could achieve when it set its mind to the elevation of its country in the ranks of producers and exporters. When the commission was in Denmark £16,000,000 worth of produce was being sold to the United Kingdom. That is a triumph of organisation. In lOOfi the same body, j but slightly increased, visited Ireland, where, partly by the action of the State and partly by voluntary 1 organisation, similar methods of agricultural education, co-operation and marketing are being pursued with a puccess", especially in the north of Ireland, that bids fair to make that portion of the United Kingdom one of . the most prosperous in time to come. In 1908 practically the same body of men visited Canada. They passed 1 from Prince Edward Island on the Atlantic to the golden orchard valleys of Nova Scotia, through the more wooded region of New Brunswick into the French dairying district of Quebec, and ■ on to the peach farms and vineyards of Ontario. Springing over a thousand miles of scrub from Ontario to Winnipeg, we reached the prairie region, and after passing through vast tracts of yellowing wheat, entered the majestic passes of the Rockies and Selkirks, to descend on to the slopes of the Pacific. Canada, with its diversity of climates and soils, enabled the commission to make a study of many forms of agriculture—wheatgrowing, dairying, and many kinds of fruit farming. This experience, as in the case\of the two former visits, we printed in a report, which had a wide circulation, and is believed to have rendered service to both the Old Country and the North American Dominion in infusing knowledge of the conditions of land settlement, the necessary ways of cultivation, the necessary adaptabilities, and the energies and qualifications required for success. Now we are in Australia, continued Sir Carlaw Martin. We are selections from previous commissions of twelve men. The members are all interested in rural affairs, practical, farmers or lecturers in agriculture, many of them experts in their particular branches, as well as agriculturalists of general experience. We have not come to Australia with our minds filled with preconceived notions. 'We propose to use our eyes and to exercise any expertness our experiences may have gained for us in the art of observation, and we shall, as accurately as we can, and as conscientiously, publish the result of what we see without any bias "towards one region or another. Our hope is that in this way Australia may be known, as we believe it deserves to be, 'by the British public.' Without doubt, a favorable report from observers of such wide experience would do much to promote immigration of the right stamp to the Britain of the South. As Sir Carlaw pointed out, Scotland is a small country which has cut a considerable figure in the world. The Scottish race has been overwhelming for many generations, and will continue' to overflow, and it is a •patriotic and Imperial duty that it should be directed to the dominions overseas rather than that it should drift haphazard into other lands. Apart from the settlers they may, through their influence, send us, a visit from the members of the commission, sound, levelheaded Scotchmen of the observant type, is calculated to give New Zealanders new ideas and greater stimulus in the great national work of land settlement and the best utilisation of the soil. "The farmer's life," Sir Carlaw Martin points out, "is one of increasing and vital interest. The farmer keeps the keys of the granary of nature. The seasons come round for him; the chemistry of the air and soil work for him; research, improvements in mechanism, add to the interest and the value of his industry; 'he is in touch with the markets of the I world; and he is not an isolated person. He stands in the centre of things. The footing of the people on the soil, once you have them there, is important both to the rural parts and to the cities, because the farmer requires large centres of population to purchase lis produce, and a city requires for its welfare a great background of rural prosperity. How the matter is to be solved; or if ifc

can be solved at all., is still a matter of perplexity. 'But it seems that we must oppose sonic more powerful attraction to the lure of the town. We must create some Was in the young person born on the land which will he strong enough to counteract the superficial glamors of the city. We must involve him in a mass of'interests, social, economic, industrial, aiul commercial, so that it should be difficult, if not impossible, for him to pull up his stakes and (lee citywards. All this points to the well-devised scheme of education, which takes the youth at an early age and trains him ill the elements and'practice of agriculture along with a oeneral education. Nature study, school gardens, experimental stations, all point that way."