THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1909. GOVERNMENT INSPECTORS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3093, 16 January 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1909. GOVERNMENT INSPECTORS.

A writer in the New Zealand "Herald" remarks that 'farmers are continually complaining of the number of inspectors appointed by the Government in connection with the various agricultural industries. That there are substantial grounds for such complaint no one can doubt who owns stock, or works an orchard, or has anything to do with a dairy factory, or a freezing factory. The ni:mber of these inspectors is legion, and their ranks are increasing with alarming rapidity. There are dairy inspectors, stock inspectors, orchard inspectors, machinery inspectors, land inspectors, flax inspectors, weather inspectors, factory inspectors, poultry inspectors, meat inspectors, noxious weeds inspectors, rabbit inspectors, and many others whose occupation, though entirely confined to inspection, is given under another title. If the Government were to supply a list of all the officials in its employ who could be classed as in-

ipectors, and give the cost of such i ifficials in salaries, travelling ex- 1 >cnses, and general working ex- 1 lenses, the total would simply parayse the taxpayer. Tha Hams writer ;oes on to say that "manufacturers in ;be cilies who are carrying on a lumber of complicated and varied undertakings ar Q apt to grumble at what they call the interference of the state in private industry; but the nty manufacturer is let oft with remarkable freedom as compared with Lhe farmer;" but herein the writer strays from the path of fact. In the country awards are unknown, and farmers are not compelled to work ander several different awards, clashing in various respects with one anathcr, and containing which no ordinary person can profess to interpret. The farmer with all his woes, and despite hits long suffering disposition is possessed of fcound common sense, and when he saw the prospect of an agricultural award he quickly armed himself for the fray, and sceured an easy victory. We refer to the decision of the Arbitration Court at Canterbury not to tnake an award when asked to by a farm labourers' union. However, to quote again, "why the man on the land should have thrust upon him such a burden of officials is only understood by those who know the farmer's weakness for enduring a great deal of trouble before he gets up and kicks against his tormentors. Undoubtedly the inspector has been foisted upon the farmer in a deceptive disguise. He first made his appearance as an instructor, and when such men cmld come into a dairy factory and shsw the manager where he was making mistakes, and how to remedy them, ho became welcome. When he comes simply armed with red tape and proceeds to enforce the innumerable clauses of the Dairying Act in an arbitrary manner, the farmer's dander begins to rise. It is the same in the orchard. Most intelligent fruitgrowers welcomed that Government official who came in the guise of the pomologist. He gave them useful information; introduced to their notice new stocks, new spray mixtures, and the advantages of cultivation. Now, when the orchard inspector comes in with 15 clauses of an Act of Pjrliament, and A to D a idendums to many of the clauses; when he cinfiscates a consignment of fruit because it is infested with No. S in the first schedule or No 3. in the second schedule; or w!ien he charges a fruitgrower wth not notifying a disease which he thought was only discolouration due to impure spray mixtures, then the orchardist begins to write to his pet M.P. Hitherto, it must be confessed that the farmer and the fruitgrower and the dairyman have not suffered much thiojgh the growing army of inspectors, except, perhaps, indirectly through their pockets, and in this respect the farmer is so used to seeing his taxes go to benefit other people that he does net mind this aspect of the case." The article is concluded as follows (and in it is expressed the very kernel of tha principle ot inspection in the words "the real aim of civilisation should be not organisation by force, but th-> voluntary acceptance of order through knowledge.") It can be easily imagined that a useful field for the employment of New Zealanders coulu be found if the Education Department would only realise the necessity for making our educational institutions train youths on lines of practical utility. Our stock inspectors would th.n be skilled veterinarians capable of diagnosing the diseases of domestic animals. Our orchard inspectors would, be trained biologists able to identify the various pests; to understand their life history and to suggest the best means of preventing their ravages. Our dairy inspectors would not only be familiar with legislative regulations, but would be familiar with the various bacterial forms; Seamed in the matter of milk production, and able even to give advice in the very important matter of scientific feeding. It is a waste of time, a waste of money; and a waste of opportunity, to make our inspectors only another form of policemen. If the State finds it necessary to enforce the regulations it has made' it can enforce them much better through specially trained and skilled officers, and would have much less need for compulsion of any kind when its officers could instruct as well as direct. The State has higher functions to perform ihan merely to make laws, and its officers have wider duties than merely to maintain them. The real aim of civilisation should be not organisation by force, but the voluntary acceptance of order through knowledge."