The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1912. TO THE TOWNS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 298, 13 June 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1912. TO THE TOWNS.

The Hon. Mr Samuel, in his very helpful and appreciative remarks about the winter show last week) touched upon a topic, the importance of which it is impossible to exaggerate, and we are glad that the occasion has been given for referring to the extraordinary and evergrowing menace of a rural population tending townwards. Mr Samuel said that it was perhaps natural that the youth of the country should seek to dwell in the towns where luxuries were to be had and hardships were comparatively rare. It is distinctly unnatural that the trend should be townward, just as it is as distinctly unnatural for a dog to eat bread or a cat to run away from a mouse. It is, however, a matter that must inevitably right itself by natural law. There is a point at which it may become impossible for a sparsely people country-side to continue to feed densely populated town areas. It may be reasonably true that for the properly equipped young man the city offers few hardships and presents many luxuries, but it certainly is true that some #f the greatest hardships are borne by the town-dweller (especially the heads of large families) and many large problems have inevitably to be faced by those who live in centres of population. There are, of course, many instances where young men from the cities have gone on the land with pronounced success, just as country people have come to town and made for themselves sterling names as business men. But these are the exceptions that do not affect the main principle. It is the kind of exchange that has been going on through the ages. If the country loses a young man and he is gained by the city, his success in the city and his non-return to the country is his justification for change. He offers no problem. If a city attracts population and is able to sustain it without increase in the social problem, it is inevitably a sign that the supporting outside country is able to maintain the added city population, providing of course that the support of the towns is real and does not depend upon boom influences which may be the result of rapidly-circulating money held within urban areas or brought in by the usual colonial method of borrowing from outside. Innumerable parents, anxious that their children shall have a "career," condone the disappearance of youngsters townwards, and view town pursuits as move likely to be advantageous than rural ones. The city surely reflects the condition, the progress and the prosperity of the country, providing that the bulk of the city's population consists of workers, and that the town is not , merely a residential area for those of independent means. The point at which there must be an efflux from the towns is the point at which the burden laid on I

the rural producer is too great to be borne. This of course would make ex- j istencc intolerable for large numbers of j people in towns; it would create the hardships that Mr Samuel thinks do not exist,, and would make it absolutely necessary for the masses to become producers in order that they might be eat- ■ ts. New Zealand, as is often pointed out, lives mainly 011 the sale of raw material. The real excuse for large towns is in the handling of raw materials , in manufactures. It cannot be legitimately argued that four populous cities are needed solely for distributing centres for raw material, and as none is a really great manufacturing centre, it is unnatural that so large a proportion of people should be maintained by the rural population. The one thing that the present position shows is that New Zealand is marvellously productive. This is indicated by her ability to maintain so very large a proportion of people who are the mere handlers and middlemen and who primarily produce nothing. When the produce does not come along, there is no excuse for the vast and disproportionate body of handlers, and the trend must again be towards the country. It is either a case of production or starvation. Meantime the cities and towns will he overburdened with recruits from the country. W here the carcase is there shall the eagles be gathered together. When the day arrives on which there is no meat available, the eagles will depart to the only place where carcases are manufactured by nature—the country.