N.Z.'S WELFARE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 220, 17 September 1930, Page 11

N.Z.'S WELFARE.

LORD BLEDISLOE CONFIDENT. keeping our money in the ■ :| family. ;|'| salvation in countryside. .'■■ i (By Telegraph;-r-Qwa 7 Correspondent.) ' ■-V I ;% . WELLINGTON, Tuesday.; . i The economic welfare of New Zealand •was referred to by the Governor-General, Xjord Bledisloe,; when speaking on the Subject: of town and: country at a luncheon of the Wellington Rotary Club to-day, "In the present state- , of the -country's finances," said his Excellency, ' !"every. prudent patriot should consider, Jwhen he spends a. shilling, into whose % iands that shilling will ultimately pass. goes to a local factory, Avhich ; is normally affording good employment to his fellow-countrymen; oj:,? failing: 'that,' . }nto,.a factory'"in;any country ,like ! Great , Britain, to which' New Zealand sells her products, at least a penny oiTfcai sliflling, and/perhaps a good deal more, ■; will conie back ■to the spender j-iin'.oiie way , or another.- ■-'.■.• ■,•.-.■'" P f '•JNo , - country's economic welfare, cqntentment and happiness'; ; depends in.these • flays* solely upon its own domestic activi- ' ties," said Lord Bledisloe. "Indeed, a.too • Insular outlook, particularly if a country • -•■■'' be sparsely populated and distant from , 'the!world's; greatXcentres! of commodity /may easily?: prove. A its economio ruin. Moreover, so long as gold, ; a relatively scarce metal, remains the sold medium ,qf monetary, exchange, so. long will itsnindue accumulation in the coffers of other countries such" as . America or France affect to some extent the ready interchangeability : and value ?.?bf our .primary, _ -. ■ ■

■; ,'Sense of .Relative Yalues. ■> at least,we,can all add to (this, country's security arid ~ pur own >• -jprospef ity L and comfort -by keeping our ,'|money : circulating in the family, primar-tiif-iri the, honie.circle -of New Zealand J itself, so '■': far as New Zea-' ■ jlanders.can supply one's wants, and, so ?far:- as' they cannot. do so, then ; in the u; -families of our mother, Britain, and our- ., Imperial, cbusinsv:! If every "New Zea-! i' ! >lander doggedly- made .this his , trade he would be . surprised at the Rapidity with !: which ;' the clouds of f Repression now obscuring the sun of : industry and domestic comfort would v-ijass"away..-;'•■:' : ; , ; " , ; ;_-" - ~-: a "Prudent; Government finance is not \; /the; only Toad to' national prosperity. i ;^SelMelp:is]at .leastas. important, coupled '!'-ffeith -a clear vision" and' of rela■sjmvo values regarding industrial activi;.Vities. The -greatest perils; facing^;tip in the future are,'in the first ';.<fplace, too great a dependence upon'the ' : ';Govornm"ent to undertake" tasks which ; /ire more appropriate to iiiclividual enter.jpriae and the employment of-individual ' ;<apital; and, in the" second place, the of her population from the countrywide into the towns. . ? "; "The former threatens to kill New -personal initiative and sound - development; the latter,'to v; jfcill New Zealand; herself. •j ;■ T.;;';i : ' *■ ryitarspjark of the Nation.",- ■ ' "It is up to the townsman to'-remem- "• ber that"his ci ultimate ecoupmic;, salvation lies not on Ids own urban d.oorhowever welhscrubbed it-may be; ' V fatofc:'Qveri; uv'hisf coinfortablo ;..with ; \iiis typewri{ers|dodkets and files around ;. iKmi but in' the ;gr : eeii countryside, where r 'iKew/Zealand's butter; cheese, wool, meatj ; flax: ; ail(d timber arc: being - 'produced, and in'the'back blocks, where fTOnditiohs are hard sand life.-is strenuypus,'but'where the.vital spark of the -nation is still aglow and the spirit of '. the pioneer is- still - determined and Jresourceful.'-'-.-. ■ ,-"V ■,'•''•■'■ ■•■ "■■■' ■■•■.- ''There are-pessimists-abroad to-day, fcven ih'this land.of sunshine, smiles and Jilniman; -emciency> JiThe pessimist who vmo'st needs watching.and rebutting is he national bankruptcy in world v- over-production of land products." Con- ; 'stftuted a's'New Zealand is, climatically ■:■;.; and humanly, if and when-there is world output;: this feouritry should be, and assuredly woiakl ;•'■ be, one *■ of the very last to go to. the %■ -wail.Aseiise-of future security can best : be gratified by-consciousness of. the rapid which modern science, jv intelligently applied, is effecting in farm practice. ■' ";. , : ' '\\.' -" .'.". :-:: yPastoral Prosperity. ; ■".. For* instance, many grass farms which ten years ago were carrying one dairy cpw.or six lean sheep to every five.acres, , ar6 to-day carrying two cows; to every ' three acres, and, in some cases, a cow to ~ the acre; and these animals^are giving a ; •■:- milk and butterfat |artin , .of .-previous. experience. -This represents :■:-, ;in > dairy produce, alone; for the during the last\five years, an •'increase in output of 34 per cent of a : money value of £11,860,000," •> '• • 'His Excellency then reviewed the ,' "advance made in agricultural science and ;refrigefation,'*and its related effects. "I •' lave deemed it sufficient," he said, "to • : indicate by special reference, to pas/toral husbandry the grounds upon which I :basa. my confidence regarding tliis country's future well-beingj realising asl; dd that f, up6n the' prosperity of the ... pastoralists'pjf this.Dominion depends, in varying degrees, the prosperity of every ti-ade, industry and occupation repre' sented 1 at this gathering to-day."