Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1940. OUR SECOND HUNDRED YEARS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 March 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1940. OUR SECOND HUNDRED YEARS.

gOME of those who took part in. the stirring community tribute paid to our pioneers at the great gathering in the Solway Showgrounds and at other functions yesterday laid due emphasis on the fact that we cannot honour our pioneers better than by building worthily on what they achieved. That surely should" be the keynote of our endeavours in the second century of national existence on which we are now entering.

If they mean to continue with energy and enterprise the traditions of our national first century, the people of the Wairarapa should determine that the present population of their district shall be doubled or more than doubled, at a comparatively early stage in the second century of development on which we are now entering. No one needs to be told that, in spite of the noteworthy development particularly of our primary industries, the Wairarapa is easily capable of receiving very large additions to its population, with unqualified benefit alike to its present inhabitants and. to new arrivals. The essential condition of successful progress on these lines is an expansion of existing industries and the introduction and establishment of new industries. It is very largely a matter of planning and taking thought, and of getting together for the common good. Pessimists are always to be found who will affirm that this or that project of expansion is for one reason or another impracticable. Even the most convinced pessimist might be hard put to it, however, to find any real, justification for the slow growth of our district population. The existing position is summed up very well, by Mr Alan Mulgan in his centennial history of Wellington and its province, “The City of the Strait.’’

But when every allowance is made for the limited extent of land suitable for small and moderate-sized holdings in the Wairarapa (he observes), the question still presents itself whether the whole district east of the Tararuas is carrying a population that approaches its capacity. Statistics of population are suggestive. Of eight counties, four show a decrease since the first years of the century; one. is about stationary; and none of the increases is large. It might be suggested that some county population has been absorbed by the towns, but in none of the boroughs, save Masterton, has there been any great growth. Joseph Masters had a vision of 60,000 people in the Wairarapa, but after nearly a hundred years of settlement (counting from the entry of the squatters), the population is not much more than half'that figure.

From a national standpoint, an overwhelming ease is made out for a much' wider distribution of manufacturing and other industries than has yet been attempted in this country. Small as they are. by Old World standards, our principal cities are already overgrown, and are becoming congested in a degree definitely inimical to individual and community welfare. The most, serious and most difficult, problems of older■ countries centre in their great, cities and the hope of establishing better conditions of life rests everywhere on the greatest practicable measure of industrial decentralisation. One of many recent examples of the.teaching of experience and the trend of enlightened opinion on this question appears in some observations made the other day in. the House of Commons by the British Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, Sir Kenneth Lindsay. Discussing the problems and merits of the evacuation of school children from lhe cities, he said: —

Whereas at the outset we regarded evacuation merely as a necessary nuisance, we find that it has meant an illumination in the lives of many thousands of urban children. Thus, what started as an accident may well continue as a policy. In the past six months it has been discovered that the minds, manners, outlook and physique of the evacuated children have changed. The testimony of inspectors is unanimous on that point. The regular meals, wholesome food, long hours of quiet sleep, and fresh air which the child can receive only in the countryside are some of the reasons which help to explain this fact.

In ibis country we are happily placed in having the opportunity still of averting, in great part, instead of being called upon to remedy, the evils that, arise from an undue concentration of population in urban areas. We could not. better signalise our centennial and lhe opening of a new century than by making the most of these opportunities.

From any standpoint of 'real progress the extension throughout the Dominion of a flexible system of power supply and the development at great cost of ever-increasing facilities for transport by rail, road and sea, not Io speak of aviation, would be meaningless if they were not appreciated as a means of averting the evils of congested urban development which have developed so terribly in older lands and are more than beginning to take shape in this country. The people of the Wairarapa may contribute equally to their own prosperity and that of their district, and to national progress, by promoting a varied, development of industry in the best possible settings and with full regard Io the continuing welfare, from the broadest standpoint, of the increasing numbers of people who would find in these industries assured, productive and profitable employment,