THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1926. THE FARM AND THE PEOPLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19488, 18 November 1926, Page 12

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1926. THE FARM AND THE PEOPLE.

Thanks to the coming of more typical November weather, People's Day at the Royal Show was all that the promoting association hoped. The grounds wero thronged. No doufefc was left of public interest in the display. ' Tho last touch was given to the justification for holding it in Auckland. This, in the words of Sir Charles Fergusson, is an "extremity town," situated as it is well northward in the Dominion's "two long islands," stretching through fully twelve degrees of latitude. But the description, however appropriate in a geographical sense, is not so applicable when the distribution of New Zealand's population is taken into account; and, unless the tendencies now operating be materially diverted, that description will be one to use with cautious qualification before many years are past. As the location of the Royal Show, Auckland will still be under disabilities entailed by transport expense. These, however, should not weigh heavily against its claim to the show. If this important display is to keep its national character, it must be held in a series of locations widely separate, as is the case with the Royal Show in England on which it is modelled. For this reason alone, Auckland's claim is at least as good as that of any other town, wherever situated. There is the further reason, contained in the words of Mr. Perry, the association's president, himself a Wairarapa farmer and a renowned breeder of sheep—"a very great deal of the best stock in New Zealand is here." That, too, is a reason likely to grow in strength, if the earnestness of northern farmers be maintained. Yet the GovernorGeneral's insistence on the advantages of such a show being held near a great centre of population, since it affords to many thousands an opportunity of learning something about the land and of the source of the country's wealth, supplies a reason to which it is impossible to attach too much importance. The educative value of the display does not apply to farmers only. It relates to the whole community, as is implied in the provision of a People's Day. This vital relation of agriculture to tho whole community has striking emphasis in the very words employed to denote our national interests. "Citizen" is redolent of Old World walled fastnesses; it smacks of martial defences, essential when such civilisations as the Roman were beset by barbarous perils without, and in British use has no comprehensive meaning. We belong to a "land" and have pride in a | "country." The "Old Land" and the I "Old Country" are fond phrases falling easily from New Zealanders' lips.' There is a distinctly rural suggeßtiveness in the terms. Britain's colonies were earlier known as "plantations," a word more appropriate than that born of the old Roman "colonia" with its military connotation. Upon the productive occupation of land our national progress proceeded farther and farther across the world, claiming in its course the very soil as British; and whatever may have happened in the eighteenth-century industrial revolution to give Britain an early manufacturing . supremacy, and however far we have become "a nation of shopkeepers," that former interest in tillage is not altogether lost. In Britain it has been for a time neglected, and in even so youthful a country as this it is competition with the attractions of secondary .industries; but there are signs of awakening concern lest this vital dependence of prosperity upon profitable use of the soil be forgotten. In Britain there is a rapidly increasing anxiety about the agricultural situation. Since the war various political parties have produced land policies. Successive Governments have encouraged scientific research in agriculture. The Empire settlement scheme has had the stimulation of oversea primary production » among its urgent motives, and in this and other Dominions land settlement has of late had new interest, if only as a bone of contention. There is a deeply-rooted instinct in all this, an instinct that has found appealing expression in the cry, "Back to the land." The townward drift has been increasingly deplored. Means to check it have been anxiously sought. There have been almo'st everywhere in the world efforts to decentralise secondary industries, factories being removed from towns to rural surroundings. Norway has succeeded so well that a veritable transformation has taken place. France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy and Bohemia are following. Both in Britain and the United States the new departure has begun. Economical transmission of electric power has made the change possible, and side by side with it is appearing the "electrified" farm, of which Chester has already many examples. This development is symptomatic, evi- ' dencing a realisation that inadequate I attention to agriculture is perilous.

It is well that the whole community should be seized of the truth of this. The town-dweller is very apt to forget it. The larger the town, the greater is the risk that it will be forgotten. Hence the service that such a display as the Royal Show can render, not only to breeders and others in friendly competition designed to raise the standard of their products, bat in instrue-

tion of the mass of the'people. The show impresses the importance to be placed upon pastoral and agricultural pursuits, and helps to keep alive in the community an interest tending to foster those pursuits. There ought to be no "town versus country" controversy, but rather a ready recognition of the mutual service of each region. The townsfolk's understanding of the farmer's task is essential to his full success. More and more it becomes incumbent on him to invest brains and money in his enterprise, to organise and direct it with far-reaching vision. His enterprise ought to be held in proportionate regard by the whole community. Unless it stand well in others' eyes, he may lose their intelligent support for schemes designed to make it fully efficient. For his own sake, as well as for the profit of the general public?, he does well to foster a wide understanding of his industry, and the location of his supreme competitive displays in populous centres is therefore a wise policy.