WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1917, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

LAND SETTLEMENT. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. (Special Correspondent). „„ „ \ Wellington, Juno 4. Die Hon. W. D. S. Mac Donald has returned from Australia with a lot of interesting information concerning what the State and Federal Governments are doing m the way of land settlement and agricultural education, but he .declines to express any opinion as to how the Commonwealth compares with New Zealand in these respects. "Both countries are recognising mere fully than ever be. fore the vast importance df land settlement," he said in reply to a pointed question this afternoon, "and their conditions and circumstances are so different that it would be unfair for a visitor to draw comparisons in which all his bias would be on the side of his own country." But whatever his bias may be, the Minister of Agriculture is not grudging in his appreciation of tho efforts Australia is making to attract people' towards the land, and to assist them in obtaining tho best results when they get there. He waxes eloquent in .his praise of its system of agricultural education, Of the generous administration of its land laws, and of the schemes it is promoting for converting the returned soldiers, mostly taken from the crowded cities, into contented rural producers. NEW ZEALAND'S OWN CASE. But while speaking of what Australia is doing with some natural diffidence, ;the Minister discusses the position in rNow Zealand quite frankly. He does | not take a pessimistic view of the conditions that will prevail after the war, but he belie,, i they will impose upon the people of the Dominion a nieasurt, of responsibility which will tax their courage and their resources to, the utmost. Now is the time to be preparing for this ordeal. Mr. Mac Donald recognises that there are many political qucstions now held in suspense, which will be open for discussion after the war is definitely won, and he has no desire to prevent their discussion, but he sees above and beyond all these questions the necessity of rehabilitating the finances and industries of the country, and of stimulating the trade and commerce. The Dominion will bo left with an enormous i increase in its debt, entailing a large increase in taxation and demanding an earnest and sustained effort on the part of the people who have to find the monev. The Minister, as he reiterates himself, is not pessimistic about the future, but he wants the people to realise the facts. MORE PRODUCTION.

Mr; Maedonald's own confidence is based on a firm faith in the productive capacity of the country. "Settlement, more settlement, and still more settlement." which would mean production, more production, and still more production, is the burden of his appeal to the public. Ho is not Minister of Lands in the National Government, and, it is scarcely necessary to say, he. does not suggest even by a gesture that he has any fault '- find with the policy of hi* colleague ■ io holds that portfolio; but it will be interesting to learn by and by what ndditir il 'facilities he would provide for .carrying his precept into general practice. In the meantime, as Minister of Agriculture, he has various opportunities to assist the I farmers, and it must be said to his credit he is turning them to good account. But one of the wasteful economies practised by the Agricultural Oepartment, for which the Minister himself may be largely responsible, is a lack of enterprise in "advertising itself. One has to search through a pile of departmental papers, separating the grain from the chaff, and become a constant reader of the "Journal of Agriculture" to get any adequate idea of what Mr. Macdonald and the members of his staff are doing for the men on the land.

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. | Take, for instance, the question of agricultural education. How many farmers, who, of course, are not the only persons concerned, know that at the Central Development Farm at Wcraroa they can get without any cost to themselves a training for their sons which, for all practical purposes is as good as the education they would receive at.the Canterbury Agricultural College at Lincoln? Tho Education Department did advertise a number of bursaries in wanestion with the institution, but the average farmer would be the last person in the world to read such an announcement. Then there are a dozen experts attached to the department who are rendering invaluable service's to the comparatively few farmers who consult them. They are ready to give information and advice on any subject within their sphere, and their sphere is a very wide one, but probably not 20 per cent, of the fanners in the' country know of their existence. What is wanted is wide and persistent publicity for the work tho department is doing. Given this it would prove a very real and effective factor in turning the public mind to the land, and in bringing about the conditions which Mr. Maedonnld and other observant people consider necessary for tlto salvation of the country. \