THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 1927. A VITAL PROBLEM.

Wairarapa Age, 8 March 1927, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 1927. A VITAL PROBLEM.

We fire glad to give space to-day to reports of an address on farming delivered at the Masterton Rotary Club yesterday by Mr. A. H. Falloon, and of a discussion which followed. Some people may be of opinion that Mr. Filloon and his fellow Rotarians painted a somewhat cheerless picture. It would not be easy, however, to show that any of these speakers took an unduly gloomy view of the present position of farming industry or the outlook for those engaged in it. All of them set full emphasis upon the importance of farming industry as the essential basis and foundation of national prosperity. At the same time, it is clear that land industry, in spite of its paramount importance, offers at present no such attractions and inducements to the youth of the country as other and much less important industries. Generally speaking, a good position and a comfortable living are more easily attained in some other industry than they are in farming.

This is a state of affairs which needs to be faced squarely, not only by farmers, but by people in every walk of life. It is a state of affairs which cannot continue without undermining and ruinously impairing our prosperity as a community. Standards of prosperity in farming industry must be raised very considerably if the people of this country generally are to enjoy secure and settled prosperity. Not one, but a whole series of complex problems must be solved if land industry is to enjoy the stable prosperity which is the cardinal condition of secure national prosperity. One broad demand of the situation. is that means should be found of preventing that undue inflation of land values which burdens the working faimer with an impossible load of capital costs and charges. Another demand is that the working costs of the farmer should be brought into normal and equitable relationship with those of ether sections of the community. There is urgent need also, by means of agricultural education and in. other ways, of setting higher standards of practical efficiency in farming industry. If all these requirements were in process of being satisfied, it would still be necessary to effect such an improvement in the amenities of life on the land as would make that life compare more favourably than it does at present with life in towns and cities.

There is yet another aspect of the problem under notice that deserves the earnest attention of thoughtful people, and particularly of business and professional men like the members of the Masterton Rotary Club. It is impossible to regard the economic life and development of any country as sound and healthy unless its secondary industries are linked up in a natural relationship with its land industry. This implies, amongst other things, that in any country the initial step in manufacturing development should be the treatment and fabrication of materials produced within its own borders. In light of these familiar and established facts, it is manifest that we have in many respects departed from good standards and orderly methods in developing our secondary and subsidiary industries. The problem of remedying the defects of our economic organisation may appear to present almost overwhelming difficulties, and there is certainly no royal road to be followed in seeking or approaching a solution. If the problem is studied honestly and persistently, however, the way to a solution will

become steadily more apparent. It is an encouraging sign of the times to find business and professional men here and in other parts of the Dominion taking an alert and sympathetic interest in the fortunes of farming industry, for it is primarily upon the growth of understanding and a spirit of co-operation between men of this type and those engaged in land industry that a- solution of our national economic problems must depend.