"THIS SNOBBISH IDEA."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 46, 23 February 1929, Page 12

"THIS SNOBBISH IDEA."

FARMERS LOOKED DOWN

UPON?

APPEAL TO MINISTER. MR. ATMOKE'S APPRECIATION. (By Telegraph.—Special to " Star.") STRATFORD, this day. During the civic reception to the Minister of Education, the Hon. H. Atmorc, reference was made by Mr. S. Pitt, a leading local-citizen, to the fact that people in the cities looked 'down on farmers. He asked Mr. Atmorc to do what lie could to dispel this snobbish idea and to try to get people to look with more kindly eyes oil men on the land. Mr. Atmore, in reply, said that the education system was to blame for what snobbery there was, but lie hoped there was not so much as alleged. In tlio past the education system tended to create the idea that young people should fit themselves for positions in commerce or in the professions. Everything possible should be done to popularise farming and to secure more esteem for those following that occupation.

"New Zealand does not export a single product of secondary industries," said Mr. Atmore in the course of his reply, "which means that the demand for secondary products .must come from within the country itself. The demand for secondary products can only lie increased bv increasing the wealth earned by the primary industries. To foster secondary industries without developing primary industries would be like feeding the cart and expecting it to pull the horse.''