THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1907. THE UNPOPULAR COUNTRY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8532, 10 September 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1907. THE UNPOPULAR COUNTRY.

Reviewing a book on the small helpings question, the London Spectator points out that rural depopulation is not an evil that afreets England alone. In France, where agriculture is protected by higher duties than English tariff reformers have ever suggested, there is just as much anxiety as there u in Eng'and about the growing desertion of the countryside. There are at least 400,000 tramps in France. In spite of Protection, small holdings and State loans to peasants, the unemployed refuse to take up empty farms. In protected Germany the rural population decreased from fifty-three to i forty-six per cent, of the total popu- | lation in ten years. In newer : countries the figures are just as striking. One-third of the population of New South Wales is to be found in Sycney, and two-fifths of the population of Victoria in Melbourne. In New York State thousands of farms arc tenantless, but in New York City the overcrowding is so great that there are 330,000 rooms with no daylight. In view of these facts the Spectator thinks it futile to hope to re-people the land by endowing county councils with the power to acquire land, or by altering the tariff. The remedy is to bring manufacturing industries back to the country. Three or four centuries ago the present distinction between town and country hardly existed in England. The towns were but large villages, with ample garden space attached to

all the more important houses, and the inhabitants of the so-called towns tilled the &urrounding fields. In these rural towns, and even in the still more rural villages, most of the industries of contemporary life were represented. To-day most of these industries have been concentrated in the towns which have become wholly urban in character. The Spectator contends that there is no immutable law of Nature that factories should always stand in dingy streets and workers live in slums. Manufacturing industries must be carried on side by side with agriculture. The experiment has been made in various parts of England with success, and the Spectator thinks the nation ought to set its mind seriously to this only solution of the problem.