CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 March 1917, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

OUR REQUIREMENTS. The fundamental requirement in New Zealand not merely for to-day, but also for the future, is that exports of wool, meat, dairy produce, flax, fruit, and other agricultural products should be increased to the fullest possible extent. If this is done all other desirable industrial and commercial developments follow as a matter of course, and with the minimum of difficulty, for with the growth of agriculture our urban prosperty, our population, and cur local markets keep pace. This agricultural expansion can be secured with certainty by making available for efficient use all suitable lands. If this expansion is conscientiously determined upon, energetically fostered, there need be no fear of dearth of employment when our soldiers return from the war and Britisli immigrants pour in. Here is boundless scope for the energies am' recommendations of an Efficiency Board for the problem, though simple enough in its manifold phases. The building of railways, with suitable machinery, on modern and economical lines; the construction of the roads in the most approved and scientific manner; the assisting of settlers to get their improvements economically effected; with a score of equally practical questions, await consideration and demand solution. Members of the Efficiency Board will he well advised if they apply themselves to assisting in the solution of such problems before venturing into new and untried fields of industrial effort. It is proverbial that to grasp at the shadow is to miss the substance, and beyond all doubt the substance of our national prosperity lies in the development of our agricultural resources.—Auckland Herald.