A NEW ZEALANDER ON ENGLISH FARMING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 184, 3 August 1904, Page 2

A NEW ZEALANDER ON ENGLISH FARMING.

OUTSPOKEN tX3.JLJa.ENT.

CFrom Our LoiiJuu Correspondent.)

LONDON, June 17

A New Zealander, who is revisiting the Old Country aiter twenty-ioui-years of farming experience ai ine jjoUes, has just completed a.n expensive tour of the southern Kugddii Cooaues, and his comments* "on Eugusa farming methods, a≤ outuued in a letter to Uie London '"Standard," make interesting reading.

The intellectual apathy of the average English farm labourer did not tail to strike the visitor, and the explanation he oilers seems the natural one. "i'uis want of interest," he says, "is simply the apathy engendered of tarvation ■both of mind and body, and can only be remedied by giving them a fair pharr of what their labour produces. As soon as they get better pay, they will g2t ■better food; better food will bring better brains, and biains will take caie th.it education is supplied." The antiquity of tools and methods still largely in vogue has been often noted. The New Zeai-.iider illustrates the defect by a contrast from his own observation and experience. "Fancy," he says, "a .armcr using three horses, one man, and cne boy to turn one furrow about nine by five. In New Zealand one man, cne douLlefurrow plough and three horses (abreast) would do two furrows at once." The visitor is also strucic t>y tne fact that the farmer and his lamily do not themselves work as they do In New Zealand. They ought, he diily observes, to be country gentlemen in receipt of an income of £ 10,000 per annum. Tsie advantages of co-operation are strongly urged. A first-clas3 co-oyejrative dairy worked on the lines of tho New Zealand concerns would probably pay, iv tb« opinion'of this critic, 10 or 12 per cent. on the outlay. "A good factory, with creameries, could be erejted at a cost of about £3000, properly equipped ana furnished; there could follow afterwards the bacon factory, which is a sine qua non, and the general storekeeper's business." The complicated systems of land tenure in this country are bolJly attacked by this New Zealander. "The laws, regulations, customs, and conditions regarding the tenure of land are all wrong; restrictions seem to have been framed not to encourage honest men to deal fairly with la.n<l. 'but to restrain rogues and thieves. Under existing conditions, it is no wonder that farmers try to get all they can, because they are so fenced round with harassing conditions that they cannot get all they might or ' are entitled to."

The stolid conservatism of the Eng- ■ lish farmer makes the New Zealanrler very imputient. "It is almost impossible," he declares, "to get even the unprejudiced and right kind of man to f. rsake old ruts for good sound g~ir.g. Cold water i* thrown on any innovation. Although the method may never have had a fair trial, it is condemned because it was not done by the 'forefathers.' It, is quite a moral that English farmers cannot grow mutton to compete wit 1 ! New Zealand, nor beef to compete with America or Argentine; therefore, why not accept the inevitable, and give up? You cannot grow wheat at a pro fit—so you say. Then give it up, too. Onitada is ready to supply nil you want. Dairy produce you can mjke, and at a big profit: so why not go into the. matter in a proper way ? > T ot in the tin-pnt style that T see heie. but in a manner worthy of the old traditions that belong to the emmtrv."

But. as he observes, there is an uttpr wfiTit of 00-oppration on the part of the K-crliah farroine rjonrmuTilty. An effortis to be mnde this year to arousp the spirit of combination amongst th? farmers of England, but with whnt a UC -es3 remains to be seen. Or+'uip it is tint until they Irnrn to sink locai jealou«i-s and prejmliees and to bind themselves together in the interests of the Industry as a whole, farming in Great Britain \rill continue to labour n-nder the disadvantage the New Zealander has noted.