FARMING IN BRITAIN.

Hawera Star, Volume L, 15 January 1931, Page 4

FARMING IN BRITAIN.

Although all parties in Great Britain agree now that agriculture should mean more- to the country than it does —especially that more than seven per cent, of the popiilaiton should be engaged in cultivating the land—no party or government has been successful in effecting a change. The editor of the “Countryman,” Air J. AV. Robertson Scott, in a series of special articles written for the “Observer,” has discussed the problem very fully. Stating what in his opinion is required to rescue British farming from complete decay, he expresses his disapproval of a general policy of agricultural protection. He believes (hat the country must be as ready now, in a crisis in the national fortunes, to consider new ideas and to lake long views, as it was in the Great War; and that the problem of the unfair competition of' foreign food supplies with British production can be solved only by all political parties acting together. Marketing organisation must be improved, and the system of tenure lie revised so as to serve, not personal advantage, but the needs of agriculture and the nation. The land must be more economically worked, and access to it be facilitated. Air Robertson Scott asks for a Rent Act to prevent any unfair rise of rents against the farmer, depriving liim of advantages which the State and his own efforts may give him. The schools are to play their part by cultivating the intelligence and character required to enable a farmer to do well. “The problem of our agricul-j

ture,” adds Mr Robertson Scott, “must be pondered all the time not ns the problem of an industry, but as a national problem. Need it be said that the notion of an Agrarian Party is absurd? The interests of the town and country are one. The town wants fresh food; the country can supply it. What we want for the solution of the rural problem is not an Agrarian Party attack, but an All-Party attack. Men well acquainted with land believe, on evidence that cannot be gainsaid, that there is no industry which, under wise guidance, is capable of more remarkable development and expansion, with the greatest benefit to the nation at large, than the agricultural industry. But wise guidance means taking a longer view than most people care to take or seem able to take. . . . It is certain that unless we recognise quite clearly that we have come to a time of national emergency wo might well reconcile ourselves to saying good-bye to a British agriculture that counts.” The politicians have done much and probably will do more for the British farmer; but there is a great deal which the British farmer might reasonably be expected to do for himself, especially in the matter of'marketing. For it is certainly rather surprising that the Danish and Dominion plans of co-operation are not better understood and more widely applied by the primary producers of Britain.