The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1919. A NEGLECTED PROMISE.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 April 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1919. A NEGLECTED PROMISE.

The Hon. W. D. S. Macdonald, Minister of Agriculture, recently visited Taranaki, and with what he saw he was greatly impressed, judging by the statements he subsequently made to pressmen in the Manawatu and Wellington. He confessed he was amazed at the development and prosperity of the province, and was greatly struck with the substantially-built dairy factories and the fine type of settlers' houses. It was the Minister's first comprehensive trip to Taranaki, and evidently it had not been without profit to himself. His surprise incidentally shows the need for our legislators to \' it the various districts, examine i heir conditions and observe their »eds ; otherwise the districts are

j ')y to be seriously handicapped when it comes to legislating for their requirements. The Hon. Macdonald is one of the practical and useful members of a Ministry that does not meet with universal favor, and for the expression of such favorable views of this Cinderella of New Zealand we are duly thankful. But his enlightenment only serves to prove how truly ignorant of Taranaki's conditions and prospects the general public of New Zealand is, and particularly the average member of Parliament. The Minister of Agriculture really should not have been surprised at Taranaki's productivity. He should have known that it js the richest part of New Zealand to-day, and has possibilities that can, without exaggeration, be regarded as immense, if only a common-sense policy towards it is pursued by. the Govera-

ment. In the past no part has been so neglected. One has only to read the woeful stories related by the backblock settlers to the Ministers of Public Works and Lands, at Whangamomona, the other day, to realise the extent and consequences of this neglect, or to bear in mind that the main na tional highway linking Taranaki with Auckland is in no better state to-day than it was twenty years ago. Yet, despite this gross neglect, Taranaki has progressed. To-day the value of its exports are £56 per head of population; that of New Zealand averages £3l to £32. But what would he the total value were the large tracts of practically unused lands in the backblocks served by passable roads and railways ? It is not too much to claim that, were the million acres comprising the hinterland brought into productivity Taranaki's'exports, instead of being worth three and a half million sterling, would be worth over five million. No part of the world is So favorably situated for dairying and stock-raising, and no part has been so ignored and neglected by the various Governments that have had the direction—or misdirection —-of New Zealand's affairs. There is now evidence of an awakening and of a realisation of the potentialities of this province. The Ministers who have been here of late have all expressed sympathy with the demands made for the improvement of the transit facilities, and possibly were they to remain in power—which might well be a national disaster—an improvement would be effected. They have neglected their opportunities, and really deserve the fate in store for them. The public realise that the only way to meet the tremendous burdens imposed by the war is to vigorously and comprehensively exploit and develop the country's resources. "First things first," ant}, the first thing in national undertakings in New Zealand today is the completion of the Strat-ford—-Okahukura railway and the Main North Road. In the past only a handful of men have been employed on the lormer work, where every available man' and piece of machinery should have been employed to rapidly complete the work and bring it into profit. As far as the Main North Road is concerned, Mount Messenger is still a block to .traffic for eight months of the year, and the unbridged Mokau is another insuperable bar to the development of the big areas of good land inland and beyond. Taranaki. as the Hon. Macdonald stated, is a land of promise, but it has been made what it is to-day by the courage, industry and enterprise of its own settlers, with very little help and encouragement from the Government. With that given, Taranaki's future must be particularly bright, and New Zealand as a whole the gr.eat gainer. >