THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1923. THE NEEDS OF THE HOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18325, 15 February 1923, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1923. THE NEEDS OF THE HOUR.

The urgency of an effective policy of land settlement in the Dominion is being thrust upon public attention In Parliament, the difficulties under which our farming community labours by reason of lack of capital, a lack largely occasioned by heavy taxation, have been made a subject of attack upon the Government. The Auckland provincial executive of the Farmers' Union has discussed the same topic, with special reference to the need for capital from the farmers' point of view and the need for population from the point of view of the Dominion as a whole. From Britain come details of the Oversea Settlement Committee's report for the past year, and the larger issues of land settlement, envisaged as an Imperial question, throw into vivid relief the particular problems of our own country. At a time when vigorous use should be made of our land resources, both for our Dominion's sake and the meeting of a share of Britain's need for placing emigrants in overseas territory, the adequate use of those resources is very seriously hampered. The Dominion is heavily burdened with taxation, and the existing system operates adversely to the provision of capital for agricultural development. Without money, enterprise is being strangled. There is a need for both settlers and financial aid. An increase in population would mean a widened distribution of the burden of taxation, the taxable capacity of the country would increase in a much faster ratio than the growth of public expenditure occasioned by an influx of people. The national finances would gain buoyancy, and every taxpayer would have relief. The effect of this upon the financial situation would be highly beneficial. A lower taxation per capita .would release money for loans, and, provided the influences hitherto diverting capital from agriculture were removed, the farming community would get its share of money so released. The Dominion has no problems so clamorous for solution as these relating to the use of its lands, and it is well that the obstacles standing in the way of their adequate settlement and working should be frankly faced.

It is impossible to lay too much emphasis on the importance of land settlement. Upon the development of our Dominion's primary resources everything else depends. Secondary industries and manufactures will find their serviceable place in ■ due course ; some of them, closely related to primary production, may advantageously be maintained now. But their multiplication at this stage of our Dominion's development would make the economic structure top-heavy. In view of its natural resources and climatic conditions, and especially in view of the unduly accelerated growth of its urban centres, New Zealand's attention should be earnestly turned to rural development. To meet its own elemental needs and to export a large surplus of primary products in payment for imported manufactures advantageously made elsewhere—this is the only sound policy. It is a policy of adequate land settlement at bottom ; and it is a matter pressing for Parliamentary attention. Private individuals can do little to accomplish what is needed. Syndicates can do very little more. It demands a vision of a whole country's capabilities and requirements. It involves the striking of a wise balance between primary and secondary production. It includes even control of fiscal and financial relations with other countries. More immediately, an effective policy of land settlement means suitable immigration, ready financial aid to settlers, equitable incidence of taxation, and adequate rural communications. These are matters wholly beyond the scope of private enterprise : they belong to national business, and just now they are the most urgent matters of public business. No more worthy, objective is conceivable in the material activities of national administration than the encouragement of bona-fide farming. Of land speculation the country has had more than enough: it is to be discouraged as a hindrance to sound national advancement. If the money that the farmers seek is wanted for the mere financing of properties too extensive to be worked properly by their owners, its furnishing would be. a public calamity rather than a national gain. Safeguards should be exercised against this risk. Consideration of these and kindred aspects of land settlement reveals the imperative necessity for earnest Parliamentary heed and action.

How is Parliament occupied while these things cry aloud for attention? At the heart of the Empire, statesmen are bending their energies to put a wise scheme of Imperial migration into action. Here, land settlement flags, agriculture is in sore need of money, and the whole country is burdened with taxation too heavy for the available shoulders to carry. The situation is grave, yet the way to deal with it is abundantly clear. Vigorous cooperation in the Imperial oversea settlement scheme and statesmanlike handling of the financial position in the Dominion are immediately required. They cannot wait. Delay is suicidal. Yet Parliament is content to waste weeks in futile and ignoble wrangling about party, place and privilege! The directorate of the national business is squabbling about the seats its' members occupy and the particular posts they fill, while the interests of the share-

holders are ,; neglected, v It is an unedifying spectacle. There was once, according to ancient story, a Roman emperor so utterly callous about the Imperial city that while it was in flames he retired to a high tower and sang verses to his lute about the burning of old Troy. Some legislators have seemingly made him, for all his villainy, their patron saint. Their emulation of him lacks somewhat, though: Nero's fabled pastime had at least a little merit as art and amusement. The onus for this fiasco in politics, this reductio ad absurdum of government by Parliamentary parties, rests on those who have deliberately set themselves to harass the Government. . Neither the Liberal nor the Labour section of the House has any hope at present of carrying on the government of the country. All this party wrangling is merely manoeuvring for position on their part and electioneering at a considerable daily expense to the country. The action of one of these parties has been defended authoritatively on the ground that an alternative course would be—the order is worth noting—"fatal to the party and perilous to the national interests." But these are no times for the wasting of energy in battles between the "outs" and the "ins," and the sooner the nation's business is taken in hand the better.