BACK TO THE LAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 14 January 1928, Page 4

BACK TO THE LAND

AN UNPOPULAR SLOGAN THE ATTRACTIVE SIDE OF FARMING This is what we arc all waiting to see, the drift back to the land. It must como arid until it does come there can be uo great prosperity for New Zealand (writes "Bracken" in the Auckland "Star"). When the farmer prospers, so does the rest of the community pro rata, but owing to the post-war slump and subsequent financial depression, farming as a calling in life has suffered a severe shock. That it can still be made a most profitable undertaking, when conducted on sound business lines, by men whose hearts are in their work, there is little doubt, but it has unfortunately, quite apart from its commercial aspect, received an even more severe shock in a totally different direction. There does not appear to be the previous enthusiasm for it. It seems, as a calling, to have lost dignity and caste and instead of the young men of the present day looking upon the chance of getting on the land as being an event to be very much desired, there is, I am afraid, a tendency on their part to deride it.

I was in Auckland quite recently and when lunching in a restaurant one day found myself at the same table with two typical youths of the present day. Judging from the conversation, which I could not fail to overhear, tiie father of one of them wanted the boy to take up farming. The latter, however, was not enthusiastic. I started by being amused and I ended by being frankly disgusted. If this hoy's opinion of farm life is the general one, then I am exceedingly sorry for New Zealand. I personally know of .no legitimate reason for this attitude, but I think that it is. in part, at any rate, due to the amount of publicity that has been given to the farmer's woes, imaginary and otherwise, during the last few years. So much have our troubles been discussed by the public in general and by Parliament that I am afraid as" a class, we have lost prestige and that unless in the future "we keep a stiff upper lip," we are liable to lose not only the respect of the thinking public, but also their sympathy. After all, what liner life can a man desire than to take up land. We have a magnificent little country, both from a picturesque point of view and from that of its natural fertility and equable climate. Few countries can boast such a mixture of scenic grandeur and simplicity. What other occupation outside of farming demands such a diversity'of knowledge? Besides having a sound knowledge of everything appertaining to farm work, we must be something of a botanist, chemist, veterinary surgeon, carpenter and a dozen other things. This alone proves it to be an occupation demanding brains and brains of no mean order. I never knew a dullard to make a good farmer. What more absorbing study is there than the study of nature. That is farming. The hand of man can produce nothing as perfect as nature. It is free from all artificiality and therefore morally clean. Duplicity is, thank God, foreign to the nature of the beasts of the field, in which they show a vast superiority over man. As farmers, we are in the pleasant position of being primary producers, without whom the world cannot continue. Therefore' our job can never fail. Unlike the supplier of luxuries, wc are not dependent on the whims of a fickle public. Even in the matter of strikes we arc comparatively safe, as even strikers must eat. Wc arc to a large extent the masters of pur own destinies and subject to no authority. It is a lifo full of interest and full of change. The more one studies it, the more absorbingly interesting it becomes, and last but not least, it is essentially a man's life. This craving for the artificialities in life is not a healthy sign in a country whose very existence depends on the primary producer. The farmers themselves are in part to blame in that they don't make life move attractive to those boys who do come into the country, and the boys themselves are also to blame in that many of them don't appear to have the stamina to give the life a fair trial.