FARMERS AND THE OTHERS.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 304, 20 April 1945, Page 5

FARMERS AND THE OTHERS.

Sir,--l. was interested in Fen ill’e@ article "Back on My Tracks," but surprised at his weakness in answering farmers who imagine they are the base on which all other sections of the community stand. The truth is that no class is independent: all are interdependent on each other. Farmers, as such, could not carty on without the co-operation of non-farmers. They could not even feed themselves. They would perforce, become hunters and fishers in order to exist at all; and that of course applies to all of us in a non-co-operative community. A little, a very little, ratiocination will prove this. Farmers, in order to farm, require clothes, houses, furniture, implements, harness and what not, none of which they, as farmers, produce. Without these they would be naked, or half-naked savages and must become nomads in order to find food. When it comes to modern farming, such as is carried on in New Zealand, they must have, besides the : above, the assistance of roads, bridges, fences, railways, transport workers, school teachers, foodstuffs (such as tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, flour), electric power and a host of other things that they get from outside. Farmers, without the help of all the other useful members of society, would become a community of Robinson

Crusoes.-

ACCOUNTANT

(Auckland).

Sir,--The finding of "Back in My Tracks" in this week’s issue has revived my flagging interest in your paper. It is grand both in substance and presentation. I wish we could have more articles of such calibre instead of the ‘messy, anaemic, superficial stuff we have been treated to sometimes. But before your artist does any more country life illustrations could he have a look at some real New Zealand farmers? Anything looking less like three of them yarning over a gate (even a three-barred one) I have never seen,

PEN

ELOPE

(Wairarapa).