THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1912. THE POPULATION QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10630, 8 May 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1912. THE POPULATION QUESTION.

Mr J. G. Wilson, ,the President of the N.Z. Farmers' Uinion, is an intensely humane" and rational gentleman. He lias had a,sufficient knowledge of the world to appreciate the singular discrepancies Ibetween those who have and these who have mot. Why he ishould persist, in regarding the solution of the la'bcaur problem in the. importation Mf farm lads from the Moth : er Land is tflie more remarkable on account of his usual levelheadedness. Does it not ooeur cto Mr Wilson that we have already in our midst a growing population, to wham the first opportunity of advancement should be igiven? It is idle for him to suggest tthat we cannot produce the bone and sinew requisite to tile development of the soil. r We have it here. It is with us now. AM that is required is op(portunity. The problem, which most meeds solution, is that of how to afford the young men wiho are growing up in our large towns ia reasonable facility for gehbiug ujpon the soil. Would Mr Wilson not be doing a greater benefit to the iD'ominlion by urging the cultivation of rural habits in the colonial-' tared young 'than., by. selling So bring ttnito comipeiitioiii iwith them Dbys who, though unfortunate; in their cirouinstances of birth, canmot be regarded as other than unwelcome? It is pathetic to think that there is growing up in our midst a .body of young men who feel no sense ac responsibility, because they have not been* taught it in their youth'. This leads us at once to ask whether our education system is ou the rigjhfc lines. The' Hon. Mr Han an, when he visited Masterton last

week, was particular to emphasize the possibilities of the poor man's son graduating Ifirom the primary school to the University. Aire we to understand that the University is 'the fullest realization of the ambitions of the youth of to-day? if we are, then we shall fall huiiicntably short in: ouir prowess as a people. There is a larger scheme which has wot been entered upon in anything like seniousnesis. That scheme pertains to tile higher development of .the rural education. The Plrime Minister has stated his earnestaiess in the ma titer of- agricultural inistruction. He has given no practical proof of his smcer-lty. The proposals, in regard to the utilization of the State fanms .far educational purposes are thoroughly inadequate. They do inot nil the requirements of the country. If 'Mir W'i'lsom. and the Farmers' Union would do a genuine scrvfoe to New Zealand they would insist upon.* an investigation of the' possibilities of •bringing the mural science within the scope of the young New Zealander.