RURAL LIFE

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24547, 21 April 1945, Page 6

RURAL LIFE

: -f ; ■ Changes In Fabrics Noted COMMENT BY RESEARCH WORKER “The i Wm has become less seH-supj porting and more reliant on _a money economy," said Dr. W. M. Hamilton, of the'' Department pf Scientific and Industrial Research, in the "Dairy Industry in New Zealand, recently published. Hand in hand with the rapid changes in the techniques production and processing were changes in the fabric of rural life, and specialisation in function, the farmer npw buying much which through choice,-or pustpm. or by force pf ha nreviously produced from hif own farm, Dr. Hamilton writes. ‘*The factory system has relieved JJ»e fanner of the processing and market* ing of his produce, on many janns electricity has displaced home-pro-duced firewood for heatihg and cooking, and fruit and vegetables are often purchased rather than duction ha? become more efficient, but also more sensitive to outside influences. Important as are these changes, they have been overshadowed and are, to some measure, a result 01 the increasing ease and speed of communiC *LittlQ doubt existed that. Judged by overseas standards, the average New Zealand dairy farmer enjoyed a high level of material welfare. An earlier survey of housing conditions while comparing "more than. favourably with conditions overseas, doused a somewhat disquieting position for a country such as ours. " There was also need on many farms for morfe and better accommodation tor farm labour, specially married labour. great dearth of' suitable quarters for married couples on farms tended to restrict dairy farm labour to single men and ypuwis. “As soon as these xnen wish to marry they have usually to sees some other avenue of employment. Dr. Hamilton comments. "There is no doubt that urban homes, on the average, are more fully equipped with labour-saving devices than is the average farm dwelling/ writes Dr. Hamilton. •_. . , Few things, perhaps, are a better index of outlook and standards of living than the care and attention given to hope surroundings, and too frequently one sees farm houses set down in a bare paddock with ho attempt to Justify the surroundings. In all fairness, however, it must be stated that such conditions are much less prevalent than m most other newly-settled countries.’ : That the farmer tended to bo an individualist followed naturplly. Controls from without were irksome in proportion as they tended to prevent, the fulfilment of plans or intentions. The farm had a definite - advantage over urban life in the greater oppor* tunity it provided for a norma,! family M “it is surprising that in a country go dependent on primary production there should be so little attention paid to rural sociology, or that in f country which prides itself pn its advances in social legislation there should W gn equal dearth of ihforpwtiOoJjß•'-«» gard to industry," writekDr, Hamilton, who comments that the position that entrants-to agriculture were oTt the average, less weUrSchooled than entrants to other occupations' must give cause for great concern to those responsible for directing long-term national policy. ' v _ Pealing with farm research. Dr. Hamilton makes the point that the amount spent on research in the dairy industry represented approximately one quarter el J per cent.;, and it would sem that a very strong Q|sc pould be presented for theTOOrC prosecution of research into problems affecting the industry.” ,