COMMUNITY OF INTEREST.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1921, Page 4

COMMUNITY OF INTEREST.

In welcoming the members of the Taranaki executive of the Formers’ Union, cn the occasion of their meeting at New Plymouth on Friday, the Mayor said that he considered “that in a measure the towns were parasites living on the country.” No doubt the Mayor gave utterance, without thinking, to a common expression which is quite erroneous. In. the course of his reply, the chairman of the executive (Mr. E. Dunn) placed the matter in its right light by denying that the towns were parasites at all, and asserting that each division of the community was dependent on the other. It is the failure to recognise this community of interest that is frequently the cause of that narrow parochialism. Instead of the general aim being to find and foster those points of common interest and inter-dependence that are so necessary for the advancement of national life, the tendency is rather to set up barriejs and sow dissension. A nation is made up of ’units on much the same general plan as a tree and its branches, except that the branches may be subjected to severe treatment without injuring the vitality of the tree. Ar, illustration of the benefit to be derived by town and country joining hands to promote prosperity, was afforded last year by the support given by townspeople to the Farmers’ Meat Co. as the result of a canvass for shares. In thia and in other ways community of interest and inter-dependence may well work together. Much of the petty jealousy that is exhibited between sections of the community and between different districts could easily be avoided by com-mon-sense and enlarged vision, and it would be well for this spirit of co-oper-ation to become general. There is ample room for its expansion.