The Daily News. INCREASED PRODUCTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. INCREASED PRODUCTION.

Whatever views may be held concerning the utility of the Farmers' Union to the community in general, there can ■be no question as, to the benefit to be derived from the annual confluences ..of the parent body and 'its provincial offshoots. Farming, in all its branches, is the backbone of New Zealand. At no time in the history of the worW has the farming industry been of such vital importance ( .aa during the present titanic .struggle, and. it is equalljy certain that after the war is over and the neiw trade war is operfiting against our present enemies the part which the farmers of the Dominions will be -called upon to perform will possibly be even more strenuous than is tho case at present, for the Empire will aim at being selfcontained, and that wjill mean the maximum of production. At the recent annual conference of the Taranaki Provincial section of the Farmers' Union the war. and its effect on farmers naturally formed leading topics in the address of the chairman (Mi?, fi. Dunn) who took a broad, practicjal and comprehensive view of the immediate and after effects of tho war as affecting the industry. The two points in that* able address which deserve micre than ordinary attention are those concerning land for soldiers and increased production. It will be recognised that though these matters are distinct Jn many ways, yet they are really very closely associated,' inasmuch as more men on the land should,mean that more will be produced from the soil. Mr. Dunn considers that the question of settling returned soldiers on the land does not Beem to be any nearer

solution than it was a year ago. Tlmb may or may not. be so, 'but there is every appearance of the taihoa policy being strongly in evidence in connection with this important pledge on which our brave soldiers are depending when discharged from service. Mr. Dunn strongly advocates that laud should be found for our returned soldiers in or pear the districts where they enlisted. To a largo extent that proposal is sentimental and mostly impracticable, though when such a course is possible it might well be carried out. The main consideration is getting land suitable for the/men who wish to gain a living thereby. The problem is by no means easy to solve, and the difficulties are, more likely to increase'than to decrease as time goes on. The quostion that tile Government might should considef, 'when faced with the task of acquiring the necessary areas for our returned men, is that of obtaining compulsory parliamentary powers for the acquisition of aggregated holdings, paying only the price at which the additional land was obtained. If the Dominion is to produce the utmost possible, this can only be achieved by intense farming on small areas. Again and again has attention been called to the evils of aggregation, but in vain. Now that the country is in honor bound to provide land for its defenders —not land that only large capitalists can work, but areas suitable for small holdings—the urgency of obtaining suitable i small farms justifies the Government in resuming possession of aggregated holdings and cutting up all th 6 uncultivated land—whether held by Europeans or Natives—that can serve the intended purpose. The bringing into cultivation all the available land in the Dominion will take time, forlt is absolutely of no use from a producer's pointy of view to cultivate land unless there are good roads and bridges as a means of sending the produce to market. The Government do not seem to realise this aspect of the case, for they have practically ceased operations on public works, and 'yet there is the returned soldiers' land problem staring them in the fact. Mr. Dunn also strongly advocated that our legislators should formulate an attractive scheme of immigration to increase the population of the Dominion, and to encourage men to join the ranks of the producprs. He, as 'well as others who have studied the question, can see there must also be a genuine roading policy in new districts to make country life so attractive that the existing preference for Awn life will be checked and the production of the country increased. The masterly inactivity of the Government is going to seriously hamper the materialising of this great project, though the amount of idle money in the Dominion is unprecedently great. In the figures which were quoted by the chairman of the Conference he" showed that though in the last ten years there had been two million acres added to the settled area of the country .the increase in sheep was only 4,679,879 and that of cattle 2,231,690. The large increase in the export trade may partially account for the increase not being greater, but there are other Reasons which might be mentioned—especially that of high prices —which have had a tendency to restrict the increase that 'would otherwise have been shown, mat New Zealand needs and what will help the Empire, is that the greater part of the land should 'be held by small farmers who themselves are working the land and have the greatest incentive to maximum production. We must become a nation of land workers as distinct from land holders, and there must be no unimproved land. Then and then only will the Dominion be doing its duty as a partner in the Empire.