TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 25, 29 July 1911, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY

No doubt the farmers are ihe backbone of New Zealand, but Heads I Win, some of them are a Tails you Lose, aorfc of b»ckaeh«. Out on the land, where the clean •wind blows and no smoke sttmdges the etui's face, they should get health of body and mind, especially with the blessing of fair seasons and good markets. Ono likes to think of a farmer as a large man, well set-up, bwftd and deep, physically and mentally, clear* eyed, clean-souled, Vulcan* voiced, with a hearty emanation to serve as a. tonic for the dwellers of cities. Many of them fit (hat specification, but com© of them do not, and the thin trebles of the peM# typo of' fawner wade a whining Rt the l'ecent conference. Here was the atti* tijdft of the small 'minded delegate, happily in a minority most of the time : "I make Now Zealand, and therefore New Zealand must make me. New Zealand leans upon me, and therefore I must lean upon New Zealand. I pay for all, and therefore all must pay for me. I am everything, and therefore everything must be mine." Hence a section which spurn&d thethought,of granting any farther protection to the iron and engineering trades wished to him A prohibilivb tariff put upon barley., Tk> cry was, "Ctßtoms duties for revenue purposes only," when it was a case of non-primary industries, but "Customs duties for protection purposes" when the primary in» dustries w«re concerned. w« are glad that the conference rejected the grotesque barfey proposal. The assembly adhered to its old plank of "Customs for revenue, not for protection," but it haa to be remembered that this line is specially aimed at the secondary industries. ] The farmers are already protected in j various way so well against competition in primary product* that they have scarcely any worry on this scopS ttheu, again, some of the more selfteh ftelegates | were keen to get railway and telephone services below cost, and generally showed a desire to grab more tnan a fair sharo of everything. They practically moaned : "Pity the poor farmer." The "poor former l^ is doing very well. Farmers clearly soared above the plane, of selfishness at Forest* for the their conference Common Good, when they voted for a betterment of the State's forest policy. The Government is wisely planting some large ■areas of comparatively poor lahd, which would otherwise giv« a poor return, but more activity Is needed. It ie rationally, nationally necessary for the Government to co-operate with Crown tenants and with private owners of land, both for the ctrfteervation of bush, where the trees have a useful function in maintain, ing Nature's balance, and for reafforestation of areas more suited for trees than for pasture ot crops. The conference's opinion was that • the Government should assist Settlers by subsidies and by exempting certain plantation areas from rates and taxes. "Many years ago, under the Atkinson Government, landowners who planted forest and shelter trees, and had a proper tare for them, wero given Innd scrip in proportion to the amount of planting. Ono delegate on Thursday said he remembered when ! settlors at Waikart (Canterbury) were allowed two a-rres for every acre planted. Anotlwr from Wanganui declarer! sadly that nothing was being > done nowadays to encourage settlere"" to con* sem the bush. This generalisation may not be ijaite fair, but it, is tme that the Ministry does not folly pwceiv* the importance of this subject. We are not i pleading for trees to cover lands that can b<* well u*ed for grass and rrop?, nut we do s*y that large areas of tlwse i lands suffer because the bush on adjai rent high country has been stupidly btil* I chered. The trees in many districts wers an insurance policy against flood , and drought. The important thing today is to convince both public and private men that tr«& have a definite, irreplacea.bte function in nature's scheme ■of things, just as the stmshhte and the rain h*ve their p]gnj>. The effects of

aie more quickly felfc. The penalty for a blind annihilation of forest may iiofc be sa &wift, but it is sure. Many parts of New Zealand have already suffered, and the suffering will ihcreftse in intensity and 1 extent if man contihues to try to pub himself above Nature's laws. When the City Council takes a notion, right or wrong, "Protect Your it ran be just as Own Property." obstinate about it, jusb as indifferent to public protest, as the Hon, H. M'Renzie, whom it has been justly de* ttouncing. The greehery has been swept out of Conrfenay-placc, neat the Tfti-anaki-street crossing, and there Was never a whisper of "By your leave" to the citizen owners of the shrubs and young trees. It is true that a cut had to be made in th 6 verdure by the Establishment of underground twiveniences there, but Vve cannot get ourselves to believe that it was necessary to hack away i every verdant plant. However, we give the City Engineer credit for a desire to have pretty useful tre^s in public places, wherever poe&ible, and no doubt Mr. Morton will be eager to have some more planting done, if the City Council is not dornm»t«d by persons who regard tTees as a grievous nuisance or obstruction anywhere and everywhere. In The Post to-day "Anti> Stable" repeats his alarm and horror at the prospect of a stable on one of the most commanding positions ih the Botahical Gardens, and he righteously smites, the corporation with its own line : "Citizene, protect your own property." If the cotihcil persists with its vandal proposal ft beautiful knoll will be crowned with a stable for one howe, surely a noble liOTBe to be so honoured. W hether the stable 13 called a building or a plant, it will still be a stable, &hd if the manure ia sailed fertiliser or even a more flowery name, it will still be manure. The City Council, in this instance, seems t(j be in ft mittd to prove that a corporation haft ho soul, and we, therefore, hop© that there is time yet to breathe some civic spirit mto the day. The eld reproach against Wellington— the wool safes in the Art Gallery, the tnoney-ehfthgem in th© t-emple of the muses—is a trifle compared with this vision of ft stable and manure crowning an ©nwrald slope by the sing» mg brook. What a medley of Beauty fthd the Beasl (with apology to the royal horse)! Are hot the citizens stronger than the ona horse-power City Council? " j