NEW ZEALAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1920, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND.

"SECOND TO NONE." A writer in the Irish Statesman, published in Dublin, says that he waS greatly impressed by a conversation that he had with two dairying authorities from New Zealand who had been visiting many countries to exchange views on their special industry. "They told me," he says, "among other things, that in iheir country margarine was an unknown food; a population of a million people consume* more than fourteen thousand tons of butter in a year—which means that the average family of five persons gets from two and a half to three pounds per week, in addition to a full ration of, wholesome milk. This does not prevent them from placing on the English market (and also on the Irish) an .equal amount m butter,'as well as a vast supply of cheese. New Zealand is one of the most remote countries in the world, but in technical skill and in contentment of living I fancy that it comes second to none. One of the details which go to make up this pleasant picture is very significant; every national school in New Zealand, urban as well as rural, has its own garden attached to it for the purpose of practical training, and prizes are given annually for the schools whose gardens are best kept and most successful. There are a few schools in Ireland—in rural districts—which have such gardens, and there is plenty of evidence that they have produced a marked effect on farming practice in their neighborhood. Cannot we learn a lesson from the Antipodes, and convert the casual exception into a general rule?"