NEW ZEALAND’S POSSIBILITIES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume VLI, Issue 3385, 23 September 1935, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND’S POSSIBILITIES

With the best of intentions, but presumably without very much thought, The Times has given its enthusiastic support to Lord Bledisloe’s suggestion that a Royal Commission “of scientific and exploratory scope ” should be appointed to examine the possibilities of closer land settlement in New Zealand. Concerning the fertility of New Zealand soil and its usefulness for various types of farming there is already a good deal ®f information, and if more is required it is hardly likely to be elicited by a Royal Commission. Unfortunately, the capacity of New Zealand to increase her farming population is not governed by these considerations. The answer to the questions which Lord Bledisloe and The Times are asking must come from an analysis of the political and economic situation in Great Britain and not from a survey of statistics about the land available for settlement in New Zealand. If Great Britain is willing to expand her imports of meat and dairy produce, New Zealand will be able to expand her farming industry and absorb more immigrants. The trouble is that the future of British agricultural policy is unpredictable. Mr. Baldwin still insists that the policy enunciated by the British delegation at Ottawa is intact and that it is the object of his Government to expand the purchasing power of the British public; but the agricultural schemes now being introduced by Mr. Elliot are suspiciously like an attempt to raise prices by creating an artificial shortage. The truth is, perhaps, that the British Government is wavering between two ideals. On the one hand the general drift to economic nationalism, the threat of war, and' a growing appreciation in Great Britain of the benefits of a balanced economy incline it to work for a substantial expansion of the British farming industry.’ On the other hand, a consciousness of its Imperial responsibilities and of the weakening of the Imperial economic connection that would result from further restrictions on food imports inclines it to the view that the goal of its agricultural policy should be the stabilisation of British farming at somewhere near the present level of production. In its wiser moments The Times has pointed to this fundamental indecision as the real ob- | stacle to the formulation of a satisj factory Imperial economic policy and j has suggested that the trade negotiations between Great Britain and the Dominions would be immensely ' simplified if some indication could be • given of the extent to which British ; j farming is to be developed.—Christ- '• church Press.