FEAR OF DECLINE IN FARM PRODUCTION

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22419, 4 June 1938, Page 4

FEAR OF DECLINE IN FARM PRODUCTION

♦ CLAIMS OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY INDUSTRY (press association telegram.) NEW PLYMOUTH, June 3. New Zealand was at the turning point of its career, and the country had to decide whether it was going to encourage primary production or secondary industry, said Mr H. E. Blyde, the president, at a conference of North Taranaki branches of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. He said that at present the trend was to discourage farming interests. Looking backward over the last 20 to 30 years, one found that the rural population had steadily diminished in its ratio to the total population, and only the advent of machinery and science had enabled production to increase and be maintained. Millions of acres had gone out of production, and if the present trend of affairs continued many more acres, of secondclass land at any rate, would become unproductive. Although farmers were in general becoming more efficient every year, he was afraid that, in spite of this, the production of primary products, if handicapped or discouraged any more, would begin to decline. . New Zealand must decide whether it was in her interests to encourage' primary or other production. It was not a question of merely helping farmers or any other section. It was a question of vital importance to everyone in New Zealand, and upon the answer depended the future prosperity of the country. • ..