THE NATION'S PROGRESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15349, 9 July 1913, Page 14

THE NATION'S PROGRESS

CITY AND COUNTRY.

UNSATISFACTORY CONDITIONS.

LEGISLATIVE REMEDIES. i Ose cannot visit, any of the larger cities of the Dominion at the present time without being strikingly impressed with the fact that immense sums of money are being spent on public and private buildings, many of which in size and scope are far beyond present requirements. Not only are great sums being t spent on new buildings but upon works of all kinds, harbour improvements, costly roads and pavements, electric car services, baths, theatres, picture shows, and a hundred similar things. The total amount, spent and being expended in this direction must amount to many millions of pounds. The bulk of the works constructed are deliberately planned for the future more than for the present. and if New Zealand does not continue to increase in wealth, production, and population the greater part of the money which is being sunk in city improvements will be absolutely wasted. Now one of the alarming features about the costly expansion of our cities is the fact that the very men who are mortgaging their present securities in order to prepare for future contingence are singularly and lamentably blind or indifferent to the only conditions under which they can expect any future increase of business or trade. It is only upon the expansion of agriculture that they can depend for any advance of trade or commerce, yet they are undoubtedly taking away from agriculturists the use of capital without which agriculture cannot increase. They are not exactly killing the goose which lays the golden eggs, but they are keeping it in such a low condition that the eggs are fewer arid smaller than they ought to be. There is no reason whatever why the merchants and manufacturers of the towns should not extend their premises, no reason why fine public buildings should not be erected, nor public conveniences be extended, but these things should follow or go hand-in-hand with the agriculture on which they utterly and entirely depend. Whilst magnificent post offices and railway stations arc erected in the cities, and necessary roads and railways remain uncompleted in the country ; whilst palatial warehouses and expensive factories are built, and Maori and Crown lands remain unsettled it cannot be said that the people of this country are acting wisely. No one j doubt-. that there will be shipping j enough to keep our greatest harbour works i fully employed, trade enough to till our j greatest warehouses, demand enough to I satisfy the most modern factories, because, in spite of neglect, agriculture must, and | will, continue to advance. Yet who is there who dare deny that we are acting in a : thoroughly unbusinesslike manner, and are neglecting our greatest opportunities for |

progress? Everybody knows the fate of the farmer who spends the bulk of "his capital on the building of an expensive house before he has laid down his pastures or fenced his fields* or who buys a motor-car and extravagant furniture before he has bought stock or implements. Well, speaking generally, we are acting something like this class of fanner in a national way, and the sooner city people and the members of Parliament .who represent city constituents realise that New Zealand is after all only a large farm, and depends absolutely on -, farm produce for its prosperity, the sooner we shall move in a direction quite opposite to our ' present course Statistics plainly show that there is a steadily increasing proportion of our population crowding into our cities as against those settling on the land. This is not to bo wondered at whilst the State is helping bo much to make cities attractive, and whilst it is doing so little in the way of giving the country people even necessary conveniences. It is easy enough to see the parallel between the farmer who builds a big house before he starts revenue-produc-ing works, when we see the Government building extravagant railway stations and post offices in cities whilst it will not find enough money to provide country roads for settlers, or whilst it pours loans into the laps of borough councils and town boards but dare not spend money in settling unused Crown or native lands. Fortunately for the nation we have not gone so far on the wrong road but what we can easily make up for lost time. The present Government could within a week or two of the opening of- Parliament pass measures which would swing the expenditure of human energy and capital into reproductive works in th«. country instead of on somewhat extravagant works in our towns. It is a lamentable fact that in spite of favourable seasons and magnificent prices for all classes of farm produce the total

amount of wealth obtained from the land V increases but slowly, whilst the national \ debt/ the expenditure of the people, and " the amount of imports advance with alarming rapidity. This is no pessimistic assertion, a glance at the statistical pages of the official Year-book provides abundant evidence to show in cold figures its absolute truth. We may,, if we are ignorant enough, plume ourselves on the agreeable assumption that the country is making 'magnificent progress, and at what cost. It is making progress, but in what direction ? Our cities are growing in population faster than our country districts, our imports are (increasing faster than our export*, our public debt is growing more rapidly than our public improvements. This is not exactly the sort of progress we ought to be making, and it could be so easily changed. Let the present Government, give-every man who will work the land, land to work on the most favourable terms, let money that is now being spent in* Otira tunnels be spent on railways that will open new lands to settlement. Instead of buying improved estates, which are already producing wealth, let the forest lands of the • golden coast, the pumice lands, and gum lands of the North be turned to agricultural use. Let the people of the cities wait for their electric trams, and their warm swimming baths until the settlers of the King Country are provided with roads from their farms to the dairy factory, and the people of the East Coast given railways and roads to open up their rich territories We have such an obvious and easy way to increase our national revenues by opening our lands to settlement that it seems madness to keep them shut up, and we have such a simple and plain road to prosperity that only wilful blindness prevents us taking it.