THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1907. TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8363, 20 February 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1907. TOWN AND COUNTRY.

The annual Show, held by the Masterton A. and P. Association, apart from its value in various ways, is productive of much good from the fact that no other function brings town and country together in such a way and to such an extent. The annual Show, now in course of progress, and to the holding of which both town and country people eagerly look forward months before it eventuates, should tend —and we have no doubt that it does —to impress upon the townspeople the aims and objects of the agriculturist and pastoralist, and the dependency of Masterton's prosperity upon ? the prosperity of the industries carried on in the surrounding districts. The Show, also, emphasises the great importance of land settlement and the great advantages 'that must lie in 'making rural land yield to the highest profitable point that it is possible to secure. In a district such as Masterton is, where the interests of town and country are' identical, we can plainly see that rural industries deserve our strongest support, and we should be prepared to oppose —to offer a determined and united front to —any movement that is not calculated to promote' land settlement and to maintain the prosperity of agriculturists and pastoralists; In the large cities the land nationaliser, whose fervour is only exceeded by his ignorance of the best methods of settling and working rural lands', flourishes, but in the country, where we have before our eyes striking evidences of the advantage of the freehold tenure, we can rest assured that, in the interests of the country, as a whole, we should not countenance, for a single moment, any proposal that would bring about a general feeling of insecurity in regard to land tenure, on the part of those engaged in farming pursuits. It is, possibly,; needless to observe that we allude to the Land Bill, and the point that we wish to make is this —that the residents of country towns, when considering the land tenure question, would be well advised to study the feeling prevailing amongst the settlers on the land, whose views qre based upon that

experience which is best of all, viz., practical;, experience, and who shall say that they do not stand upon the vantage ground of truth?