The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1911. THE RIGHT KIND OF MAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 283, 22 April 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1911. THE RIGHT KIND OF MAN.

The authorities responsible for the desire that only immigrants "used to farm work" should be welcomed to New Zealand probably know nothing about farming, and less about human nature. The least successful farmers in this country are those who have farming "bred in the bone." The most successful arc those who, becoming enthusiastic at the wonder of primal production, have devoted brains, energy and enthusiasm to a new task. The early settlers of New Zealand- were not all farmers. An intelligent, strong man of any profession, imbued with the proper spirit, may become a farmer. It is the one profession which is the most enthralling to the outsider who has not become sickened by long continued toil at primal production. A man interested in the supply of men for the land in Australia has lately said that he found the "Cockneys"' more adaptable than* the English farm laborer. It is perfectly easy to understand, It is difficult to un-teach the man in a groove, but comparatively easy to instruct the man who is an infant at a new profession. In our own country those of us who are farmers frequently laugh derisively when wc find a townsman who has spent all his working life poring over day-books or serving at a counter, taking up tho pursuit of agriculture. The fact that the townsman has nothing to "unlearn" is sometimes the reason why he beats the born farmer at his own game. Any system of immigration which keeps strong, hearty men of any calling off the land is a bad system. It is freely acknowledged that there is no calling requiring the exercise of expert knowledge so great as that of farming, and there is no profession that is so apt to degenerate into a set and unenthusiastic rule. If agricultural laborers or British farmers are the only classes considered worthy of attraction to the land, the enthusiasm so necessary to the business must be lacking. It is easier to "break-in" the "new-chum" townsman to New Zealand farm work than the "new-chum" farmhand whose forefathers for generations followed one set routine and who is therefore not so adaptable as new human material. The world's successes have not been achieved by persons who carefully and systematically copied the methods of their parents. The world owes most of its discoveries to enthusiastic "cranks" and hobbyists. There is no reason why in three months a Billingsgate fish-porter should not be a better agricultural laborer than a Somerset farm hand whose agricultural view has been bound by the mould-board of a single-furrow plough (with a boy to lead the team). One finds that there is a disposition among "organised labor" in New Zealand to restrict immigration, always on the account that new men in an empty country may snare somebody's job. The national view, apart from the labor-ranter's view, is that all physically strong men, no matter what their calling may be, are necessary to a new country, and can become readily adaptable to its needs. It has been said that "Cockneys" are not of much use to farmers at first, but as a general thing new-chum farm laborers do not draw the salaries of bank managers, and can usually be made to earn the cost of their "keep" and the dole that is generally their portion. If Australia or New Zealand restricts immigrants because they happened to be born in a town they act foolishly. Tt is not so much a question of obtaining farm laborers as of obtaining men who can be taught to become bolter farm hands than the farm-hand who has to bo tancht to get out of a 'jroovo. The farms of Australia and Now Zealand have not been made by British farmers

or British farm hands. They have been made by men and women of all classes, who, given health, strength and optimism, have used these gifts for their ] own progress and for the progress of the j two countries. The mere ability to undertake certain manual tasks i.s easily gained and progress of any kind never came by adherence to old-fashioned grooves. In our judgment new; blood is necessary in every business or calling in order to keep its vitality intact, and in no profession is this more true than in farming. Every Taranaki farmer knows of many men who have abandoned an early calling in order to take up the nobler work of primal production, and in the race for success the man from the heart of London has as big, a chance as the man whose ancestors were farmers from the time of the Conqueror.