THE FARMERS.

Auckland Star, Issue LI, 24 May 1920, Page 4

THE FARMERS.

Periodical gatherings of farmers in the cities, such as this week's meetings in Auckland, are good for both the farmers and the cities. The farmers discuss innumerable questions of national and class interest, and although too often the subject never geta beyond the discussion stage, much benefit must result from these conferences. Tho city benefits by being reminded of the basic importance of the fanner. For the rest of the year be is to many town-dwellers a shadowy figure in the background, useful for producing food, but perhaps in some men's eyes still more useful as a customer for the town- manufacturer and merchant. What the city should never lose eight of is that the farmer, like the tortoise in Indian mythology, carries our little world on his back. It is tho farmer who has made us prosperous, and the farmer who, directly or indirectly, has to find the money to meet our debts and carry out the development of which the country is so greatly in need. The decisions of the farmers' conferences therefore concern 1 every member of the community. We need not go into all the subjects that will be discussed by the farmers this week, but we may point out that among the many needs of the country a few stand. out in urgent prominence. One is more production; as everyone ought to know now, our prosperity is due to higher prices, not to increased output. Production can be obtained in two' ways—by opening up more land, and by increasing the productiveness of land already in use. Wo hope that the farmers will take a strong and statesmanlike line about land policy. Other great questions on which they should speak out are immigration, which is linked with reform in land policy, and public works. The present Government is more inclined to listen to the voice of the farmer than to that of any other class, and a unanimous and insistent demand for a vigorous and comprehensive policy of immigration, and for searching reform in public works policy, would probably produce results in Wellington. Mr. Massey has said that it might be better to build a few railways quickly than a number slowly, but the districts concerned would object. Lst the farmers take a broad view of this great question, and show Mr. Massey that 4te has judged the rural community wrongly.