The Daily News. TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1916. ORGANISING THE DOMINION'S PRODUCING POWER.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1916. ORGANISING THE DOMINION'S PRODUCING POWER.

The chairman of the Farmers' Co-opera-jtive Organisation of New Zealand, Ltd. (Mr. A. Hunter), is deserving of the warmest praise for the exceedingly appropriate address delivered by him at the annual meeting at Hawera, on Saturday las\ We sincerely commend his remarks upon the question of organising the production of the country to all concerned—the Government, the fanners, the employees, and the consumers. ' Premising that one, at least, of our duties is to keep the milk and honey flowing, Mr. Hunter went on to say that shortage of labor is apparently going to make it difficult to keep up Supplies, and that l'ttle, so far, has been done to organise the production of the country, and yet the wealth production being by means of "food and clothing material makes it of g:'eat importance to the Empire. In taking an Imperial and not a local view oT this great problem, Mr.. Hunter siiowed true qualities of statesmanship, fai more so than the Minister of the country for, he states, the Minister of Agriculture is "so busy tliat he has practically no time to devote to this department. .Mr. Hunter, however, had a remedy for this neglect, which, if allowed to continue would certainly be fraught- with consequences that should je avoided. That there must be a systematic, even a scientific, organisation of our producing power is beyond dispute, and the work is of a nature that can best be entrusted to -proved and competent hands. The intelligent portion of the general public will unquestionably agree with Mr. Hunter's contention that in this work there is room for. the best man the country can supply, and more than enough to fully occupy his time. Mr. Llqyd George has shown what thorough organisation canaccomplish in Mie matter of- munitions o'itput, and as Britain is depending upon (he Dpminions for the greater part of the food supplies and clothing materials for the forces in the field, the duty of organising these supplies is at least of equal importance to that of munitions. Mr. Hunter, therefore, is logically and patriotically sound in his contention that the man power —and tlia woman power tc-o, if necessary—of Jie Dominion ' should be ,fr*»].ed industrial

amiy. flic Department should know bare minimum need of managers, and experts for dairy factories, freezing works, woollen mills, farms, business concerns, and all others engaged in manipulating the country's products, including the workers, should all vie with each other in the effort to meet the exigencies of the'situation by means of an output that can be regarded as the limit of possibility. After providing this army of workers there should be no difficulty in passing on the surplus to be trained at the military camps. "Why," asks Mr. Hunter, "should we haggle over the word 'compulsion' or 'conscription.' Freedom itself is being jeopardised by the delay. In any case we can hardly be said to be compelling ourselves to defend ourselves." This view should commend itself to all sane intellects, for it strikes at the root of the matter in the only way that commonsense dictates, and it should carry conviction to' the Germans that the British Empire is solid in its determination to put fortli the whole of its immense resources in order to achieve the peace of the world by destroying the varring element that has caused such a woeful spilling of . blood and destruction of lives and property. Moreover, the need for the organisation of products ahd industries is not to be measured by'the duration of the war, but must be made part of the machinery for securing a self contained Empire so that in the years to come the peace that we are now so strenuously striving to secure may be maintained in great measure by cutting off Germany's opportunities of acquiring, as in the past, the wherewithal to pander to her lust of world dominance, and preventing her financial recuperation by closing the avenues of trade and commerce to her goods. Unless we learn this great lesson from the war then our sacrifices will have been in vain, Ut such a calamity is unthinkable, so that it behoves all those who are now striving to give the deathblow to Prussian militarism to organise their re*soureos to the utmost, to educate their peoples 50 that they may become more and more skilled in industrial arts, and to stand Shoulder to shoulder in their determination to oust the Germans, as well as some of the professedly neutral nations, from all dealings that will supply them with the sinews of war Tt ii to be hoped that Mr. Hunter's example and precepts will bear good fruit, and that his practical patriotism will nave the desired effect on the Government and the people of the Dominion.