PRIMARY PRODUCERS

Evening Star, Issue 19893, 15 June 1928, Page 7

PRIMARY PRODUCERS

TWO-THIRDS NATIONAL WEALTH CONTRIBUTED BY ONE-THIRD BREADWINNERS REMEDY FOB UNEMPLOYMENT A general survey of conditions in the dominion was made by Sir George Elliot to-day, during his address to the annual meeting of the proprietors of the Bank of New Zealand; and one topic ho touched upon was unemployment, and the necessity that tho trend of education should have a bias towards primary production. “ Tho official Year Hook tells us, ho said, “that, according to tho last census of 1021, the total number of breadwinners in the dominion numbered 633,000, and of that number 152,000 were engaged in primary production. It also tells us that, according to tho latest available figures, 1925-2(5, the total production for the year amounted to 15116,000,000. To this total primary producers contributed .082,000,000, and the product of factories, building operations, and labourers 5 work contributed £34,000,000. It thus appears that primary producers, being less than one-third of the breadwinners, contributed more than twothirds towards the national wealth, while the two-thirds engaged in all other occupations contributed less than one-third. According to these figures, one primary producer does more for the material well arc of tho dominion than four engaged in secondary and other industries. _ • . “ In making this record it is probable tho Government Statistician has not. added persons employed in freezing, butter factories, or transport, who are. as necessary to tho fanner as is the ploughman or tho shepherd. Bo that as it may, tho figures are arresting, and make one wonder why primary production does uni, or cannot, absorb a greater proportion of the population, and so decrease in some degree the ranks of tho unemployed. Protection by Customs tariffs, conciliation and arbitration courts, all tends to smooth out the difficulties of breadwinners engaged in secondary occupations; our education system also fosters the idea of secondary occupations or professional careers. “ Our secondary industries, important as they are, have practically no export trade—having supplied local requirements, they can go no further. Employment or unemployment in these industries depends on the buoyancy or otherwise of primary production. Theso difficulties do not exist to the samo extent with the primary producer, who, although he has his slack seasons, can always dispose of his produce overseas.' and, with capital and labour available, can carry on more extensive and intensive cultivation. The trouble at the moment is that tho majority erf boys leave school with their inclinations tending away from a farming occupation and towards the seemingly easier and apparently bettor-paid work of the city. Furthermore, I think that in the praiseworthy endeavour to bring secondary education within tho roach of every hoy and girl, a mistake is made in not demanding a much higher state of efficiency before they are passed on to tho higher _ grade school. Tn discussing this subject, a great New Zealand headmaster, a man respected and loved by the thousands of boys who passed through his hands, said: ‘lt is my confirmed belief flint 50 per cent, of tho boys sent on from the primary to the secondary schools should not have been sent on.’ Tn his opinion, there was hero a waste of public money, for an intended advantage frequently proved a disadvantage. I have no remedy for tho unemployment difficulty, but I do suggest that the frond of teaching should have a decided bias towards primary production and all it moans fo tho nation and the individual.”