IS IT PROGRESS?

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 47, 24 February 1934, Page 12

IS IT PROGRESS?

In paying a tribute to Sir Thomas Wilford, the "Morning Post" glances at the. developmental record of New Zealand, who in ninety years has I transformed herself from "a land, of ! virgin forests" to a land that exports many millions of pounds' worth of the products of sheep and cow. One resulfis that, New Zealand has now more cows than people, and the cows are helping to produce a distinctly disturbed state of mind among Bri-

tish dairy farmers. What the"Morning Post" does not deal with is the question how the Dominion developmental values, which have grown out jof loans from Britain, and out of I which, the interest on these loans must be paid, are to be realised. Obviously* this is a lender's question as well as a borrower's question;-and the Conservative Party, of which the "Morning Post" is a champion, has affiliations with city interests as well as with those rural interests that at present stand so solidly behind Mr. Elliot. "Tho real mind; of the Conservative Parly on this issue, and the real mind of the electorate, have still to be ascertained. As a lending country, Britain is deeply concerned with the-nigh two million cows in New Zealand as'well"as with the mil-

lions of cows in the United Kingdom. A reciprocity between lender-con-sumer and borrower-producer has always been underlying the-Empire relationship, otherwise the "virgin i forests" over a large part of the ■ North Island need not have been replaced by farms. Much of this replacement can never be justified even with an open market in Britain. With a partly closed market the error would be intensified.