Natural Resources Assure Future Provincial Prosperity

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21647, 13 November 1933, Page 43 (Supplement)

Natural Resources Assure Future Provincial Prosperity

N < his anniversary issue the tendency lias naturally been to look backward, recalling to mind the trials and triumphs of the past. An equally entertaining recreation, and no doubt a profitable one as well, is to turn one's thoughts to the future and anticipate events in the years to come. Without venturing into the dangerous realm of piophecy, it is reasonably possible to trace present well-defined lines of progress into the future, assuming always that the same tempo that governed past progress will continue to operate in the next decade or two. Great change* obviously must occur, not onlv in the industrial character of the Auckland Province, but also in the social life of the people —changes which the present generation will live to see. Political and economic influences may shape and alter the precise nature of those changes, inventions not yet born in the mind of man may upset the most careful calculations, but the onward rush of progress consciously directed by a young and virile peoplo eager for success and happiness, cannot bo btayed. One of the most interesting spheres of speculation concerns the future of the richly-endowed agricultural country lying to the north of Auckland. 'Thirty years ago this sunny region was almost entirely devoted to the pursuits of the axeman and the gutndiggcr—" the waste lands of the roadless North," as travellers tersely put it. The cutting out of the forests and the digging out of the gum, the snail-liko progress of road and railway building, and a curious public apathy toward a district supposed to be perpetually baked by a tropical gun—all these things contributed to the neglect of a territory pre-eminently suited to dairying and agriculture in general. To-day the Northland produces nearly onesixth of the Dominion's output of factory butter and grazes over 1,000,000 sheep. Dairying progress in the North is more rapid than anywhere else in New Zealand, every factory establishing new high records in production during tho past season. Where such a movement is likely to end would be impossible to predict, but it is significant that of a total area of 3,861,000 acres, only 1,416,000 acres are aa yet in grass or cultivation. Tho opportunity awaiting closer settlement is prodigious. Last year, with prices at their lowest level, butter production in tho Northland increased bv a fraction under 20 per cent, earning nearly £2,000,000 for tho dairy-farmers. Tho North has at last glimpsed its agricultural destiny, and thopo critics who clioso in tho past to despise its " barren " lands can now look on and marvol.

in the future remove to a great extent any rear ot a grossly unbalanced position. The pre,na tendency toward tho amelioration ? . eon V 1 © farm is hound, in the very near inture, to influence strongly the flow of population. Already sueh inventions as motor-cars, electricity and tho wireless have completely transformed ordinary living conditions in the farming districts. A mode of life that once was inclined to turn to hard work, dirt and drudgery may now find compensating adjuncts m labour-saving devices, such as the milking machine, tho motor tractor and truck, the elec-

trie stove and vacuum cleaner, and the conveniences of concrete, all of which were unknown in the days of our grandfathers. Life on many farms to-day is as comfortable and far moro pleasant than life in tho crowded city, and tho extraordinary multiplication of mechanical inventions holds further hope in store for brighter, easier and happier farming. The phrase " bringing tho town to the country " roughly expresses the effect of these

The truth is that a groat new province is about to rise in the North, blessed by great-er natural advantages, perhaps, than any other part of the Douinion. From the fruit orchards of Huapai to the sheep runs of tho North Capo man is feverishly intensifying bis eflorts on a Bcalo hitherto unknown in that territory. Better roads and better farming knowledge and technique are his allies, warm all-the-year-round rains are his friends, and bis servants the pedigree cattle bo has to improve his dairy strains. Bound economically to tho largest and richest city in tho Dominion, whoso port offers unrivalled facilities for the quick despatch of its growing exports to overseas markets, tho North will help Auckland in tho future as Auckland will unquestionably help the North. The future of tho city itself cannot for a moment bo in any doubt. As the province continues to support a larger population of farmers, bo the city must support a larger population of workers. During tho past SO years Auckland's population has more than trebled, bo that, should tho same rate of increase obtain, it will support a population of Go(),000 by 1963. Nor can such a population be too largo for a eity dependant upon a province progressing at tho present rapid rate. A flourishing homo market is equally as important as an increasing overseas one.

Thero "is a fairly widespread fooling to-day that a conscious endeavour should bo made to avoid tho kind of disproportion between urban and rural population that obtains to an anomalous degree in eome other countries. Tho fact that thero aro nearly as many people living in tho city of Auckland aB thero are in tho remainder of the provinco points to an inherent danger. At all costs a topsy-turvy position should not bo allowed to develop. Public opinion is Jiappily now awako to the situation, and greater Bupport for agricultural education and greater prizes for agricultural success ■ '>iud,

great wealth a wai

humanising influences on rural life, but ihe contrary movement is equally applicable. Improved communications and the widespread use of the motor-car no longer isolate the farming community from the town, and, although economic conditions have at present produced a slowing down in roading progress, public opinion will no longer permit transport facilities to lag behind farming and industrial progress. All indications point to startling changes in in tho next few decades, led by the popularising of air travel. Once the aeroplane cau be built, iu a practical commercial

form, to take off and alight in confined spaces, its usefulness to the average man will bo increased a hundredfold. Already intensive farming and improved amenities of farm life have made vast differences to the rural communities in certain localities; for instance, the Waikato. An almost oldworld air pervades such a long-established farming centre as Cambridgo. Jn some northern districts the dairy-farmer is already being urged

to go in for all-the-year-round milking, and methods of intensive cultivation are everywhere being held up for the approval of the New Zealand farmer, with Denmark as the bright, shining example. Such exhortation, coupled with legislative measures designed to protect the small-farm occupant, must, in a comparatively brief space of time, produce definite changes in the face of agriculture in the province. The improvements effected in the Bay of Plenty and the Thames Valey by two great swamp drainage projects, comparable in their own way with the much-lauded reclamation schemes of Mussolini in Italy, show what can be done in, the way of peopling the province by the carefully-planned schemes of man. Great areas of useless swamps in the Hauraki Plains and Rangitaiki districts, formerly vast wildernesses of flax and weed, have been turned in ]0 years into miles of rich farm land, giving useful occupation to many families and contributing to the wealth of the province. Work of a similar nature requires to bo done in other districts, embryo industries such as pig breeding, honey producing and afforestation hold unlimited possibilities of expansion in the near future, and further public works will all in more favourable years bring closer settlement and increased production in their wake. Tremendous scope for further industrial development is to be found on every hand. Take, for instance, the timber industry, which has now diminished to tlje lowest ebb in its history. The natural forests that once so richly clothed tho greater part of the province have been largely cut out, giving place to dairying pasture, and a strong public sentiment has grown up to preserve for aesthetic reasons tho best of tho forests that remain. Yet the future of tho timber industry is far from discouraging. During the last 10 years enormous tracts of land, particularly in the southern part ot the province, in the Potorua and Taupo regions, have been planted by State and private enterprise with softwoods for paper-pulp purposes. Within a few years considerable areas of these new forests will be ready for cutting and the timber industry will gain a new lease of life, bringing employment for many. The same future awaits tho flax industry. Swamp lands now largely cleared of their former luxuriant growth of flax are already being replanted by hopeful capital, especially in tho Pangitaiki area of tho Pay of Plenty, so that, as Nature's first generosity is availed of, man's foresight more than makes good the deficiency.; This is the reasoned planning of private enterprise, ever ready to seize a commercial opportunity, assisted by expert advice lent by Government Departments. In the direction of establishing new industries it is equally potent. A widespread movement, which is receiving the encouragement of the Department of Agriculture, for developing tho pig industry is a case in point. At the present time pigs are regarded by most farmers mainly as a means of using up dairying by-products, but the scope for pig production on a large scalo is limitless under the conditions now existing in tho Auckland Province. Already good work has been done

by tlie Pig Recording Club in tbo Waikato, and marketing organisations are building up an increasingly important export trade. It requires no long stretch of the imagination to visualise pig production as one of the province's leading industries. In the realm of fruitgrowing great strides have been made in recent years. The export of apples from the province has now been estate lished on an annual basis and citrus fruitgrowing is spreading in many parts of the pro> vinco hitherto deemed of 110 use agriculturally,: North Auckland undoubtedly has a bright future ahead of it as far as citrus fruit production is concerned, for its soil and climate lend themselves peculiarly to rapid growth and ripening. This district has always enjoyed A reputation for citrus fruitgrowing, and private enterprise has been particularly active there In Ilio last five years, largo areas of land having been planted in lemons and other citrus fruits. Examples of other growing industries, unthought of by an older generation, might be multiplied; what has been said is sufficient to indicate how the province is being developed in new ways. One is tempted at this stage to look as far ahead as one has been looking back —to what Auckland and the province may be like 70 years from now. To what size will the city then have grown and what will bo the occupations and amusements of its people? Will the population bo 2,000,000 in 2003, and will tho people, as some scientists suggest, then work four hours in tho day and spend tho rest in leisure? Will wo all bo travelling to ]xmdon by air in a week, and talking to our friends in Wellington with wireless and television seta carried in our pockets? Whatever Auckland may bo liko in 70 years, it will probably bo as different as Auckland to-day is from that of 1863. The measure and quality of that difference would require tho powers of a seer to dofino, and > - >pbeey is dangerous.