The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 18, 1914. POPULATION AND EXPANSION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 296, 18 May 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 18, 1914. POPULATION AND EXPANSION.

A distinguished and exceptionally wellinformed member of the Dominions Commission, Sir Rider Haggard, when in New Zealand on the business of the ■Commission, expressed the opinion that the Dominion's main industry must be agricultural. No one who knows the countryman be of any other opinion, and the position which its produce has take<i on the world's markets oroves this contention to be indisputable. It will also be admitted that the Dominion is yet a long way off.from the point at which the maximum output will be recorded. There is still a considerable area of land unproductive, and a very large acreage that is very little removed from the barren stage, while much land is not producing a tithe of what it should. What, then, can be done to hasten the expansion of the resources of the country? At once the question strikes the borders of party politics, forces its way into the arena, and becomes beclouded with controversial and irrelevant matters, to the detriment of its solution. Reform journals will blame the "Continuous Government" for pandering to Labor and not importing more farm laborers and domestic helps by means of State-aided immigration. Liberal journals will blame the "Reform" party for encouraging aggregation and largo estates, and possibly both sides may find a common ground of agreement on the fact that the population of New Zealand does not increase at a sufficiently high rate. In this war of parties much of the really important issues are obscured or lost to sight, and it is left to the dreamers outside the political circle to ponder over the best method of making the moat of our national resources. No good purposo is served by tactics aucli as those employed a few days ago by the Government organ in Auckland which used this question of population for the purpose of a violent attack on the Ward Administration and the glorification of the party it supports. To allow party zeal to outrun discretion on a matter of such great moment is a pitiable sign of journalistic atrophy, and to quote immigration figures in a misleading way with the object of assuring "impartial citizens" that "Mr. Massey is not driving New Zealanders from their country," is playing the game pretty low down. The ostensible object was to demonstrate that ill only one year of the Massey regime the excess of arrivals over departures hail risen from 8927 to 14,219, but there was a significant silence as to the reasons for this increase. As a matter of fact, the tide of immigration to New Zealand was affected by three influence!) —a wave of unrest in the United Kingdom, reactions against emigration to Canada in consequence of unfavorable reports by immigrants who had gone there and the activity 6.f the Hon. Tlios, Mackenzie, the newly-appointed High Commissioner for New Zealand, and a leading member of the Ward Administration. That, however, is only by the way. The real question is: What has the Dominion to offer as an inducement to emigrants of the rig'ht class? The mere payment, of higher wages than rules in the Old Country will not suffice, for there must be future prospects as well, and these depend on the amount of land available. Already there is a far greater demand for land, that can be utilised to advantage than can be supplied, and every year land is becoming dearer and more remote from settlement. The farmers find they cannot afford to pay the high scale of wages in force in New Zealand. Experience has proved that new arrivals quickly drop to existing conditions, and even boy labor becomes almost prohibitive in price, judged by results. It is generally agreed that there must, in the near future, be pursued a drastic policy of subdividing large estates. If emigrants are to be attracted to the Dominion there must be a vigorous policy of close settlement carried out, and a sufficiency of money available in the Advances to Settlers and Workers Departments. Incidentally, the expansion of the country's produce depends on the necessary facilities of transport being provided by means of roads, bridges and railways. There is ample room in New Zealand for more producers, but they must be those who in working out their own destinies will also assist in the process of developing the resources of the country to the highest possible limit.