RURAL POPULATION

Evening Star, Issue 22975, 4 June 1938, Page 13

RURAL POPULATION

ITS DIMINISHING RATIO N.Z. HAS REACHED CRUCIAL POSITION |Pbb United Press Assocution.j 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. Zlydc, president, at a conference of the North Taranaki branches of the Farmers’ Union. He said that at present the trend was to discourage farming interests. Looking backward over the past 20 to 30 years, it was found that the rural population had steadily diminished in its ratio to the population, and only the advent of machinery and science had enabled production to increase and to bo maintained. Literally millions of acres had gone out of production, and if the present trend of affairs continued many more acres, of second class 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 lo 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 the 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.