Country Problems

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 492, 26 November 1948, Page 10

Country Problems

AFTER many discussion-groups from Dunedin and other stations, dealing either with académic questions such as the function of the university or with imaginative generalities of a literary sort, suggested by the typical brainstrusty type of question, it was like a breath of fresh air in an atmosphere smelling of the lamp to have a group at Kurow discussing among themselves the problems which affect the country

dweller and his family. What is the most serious problem affecting Otago farmers? Would you rather bring your children up in town or country? What can be done to keep young people in the country? These were among the questions which were analysed and discussed by a panel which was one of the most sincere and unselfconscious I have yet heard. So many speakers in these groups sound either a little precious, a little self-important, a little consciously above the head of the average listener, a little too aware of the unseen audience. The Kurow group, on the other hand, sounded exactly what it was-a handful of representative people from a country district telling listeners and each other about their problems-but not, unfortunately, with enough time at their disposal to give other than a very brief indication of methods that could be used in overcoming the country-dwellers’ worst difficulties. It was good to see, however, that the amount of practical suggestion that was crammed into a

s ’ short time was all sound stuff, and neither visionary nor impossible of fulfilment. "a