The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1914. THE LAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8737, 20 May 1914, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1914. THE LAND

In proposing on Monday the toast of “The Lands Department," Mr Massey rightly referred to it as the most important of all the Government departments. It is tho department charged with tho duty of watching over the development of the primary resources of tho Dominion. Much as wo hope for the eventual development of our manufacturing industries, wp cannot hide from ourselves the fact that in the present volume of onr trade they are simply not visible. Ir> our statistical reviews, tho manufao turing interest has a very important place. But the importance at pro sent is internal, because the estah lishment of an export trade in manu factures is just now impossible for various reasons. The American tariff of last year will probably diminish these reasons, and the enterprise and practical sagacity of our people may be relied on to eliminate the others before too long a period has elapsed Thus, the development of the manufacturing interest will have to be kept in view and pursued always with energy and determination. But for tho present the primary industries are our mainstay. The Dominions Royal Commission was impressed with that fact. In its first record of its invest tigations, that body insists on the importance of the primary resources of these countries, and recommends that every effort shall be made to have their lands occupied “by a population which will assist in the development” of these resources. Among the statistics of their report we find a very cogent reason for this appreciation. Their table of exports and imports shows the amount of the oversea trade of various countries, giving the volume per head of the population. It is well worth quoting, if only for the reason that Now Zealand is at the very top of the world’s list. That is a fact to be made mueh of, because it replies effectually to all the predictions with which it was sought to bar the progress of the Liberal policy in the beginning of the long Liberal regime. These are the figures: VOLUME OF OVERSEA TRADE PER HEAD.

New Zealand 39.3 Australia 33.8 United Kingdom „ 32.3 Canada 29.7 Argentina . ..... 23.1 Franco 20.3 Germany 16.4 Union of South Africa „ 15.4 United States 9.9 The premier position is New Zealand’s. It is duo to the primary industries, which base on the land. Therefore, the great Lands Department is easily the first of the departments of the Government service.

The Liberal Governments, understanding this great fact, fostered the development of this department step by step with the development of the great primary industries. The result is the far-reaching Department of Agriculture, with its numerous divisions, all represented with considerable effect in the journal published under its auspices. The pastoralist and the farmer are catered for in many w'ays by the Stock Division, the Dairy Division, the Poultry, Pomology, and Apiary Divisions. Experimental farms throw light on every possibility of the farm, enabling the farming interest to look intelligently ahead in preparation of ocming operations. A Bacteriological Department keeps abreast of all roauirements with up-to-date information of the best. The Government graders have organised the success of the dairy industry, and command the confidence of the world’s buyers, while much importance is attached everywhere to their pronouncement in the meat trade. The leaflets of the department scatter valuable technical, practical, guiding information right and left, and the department’s “ Journal of Agriculture ” is an authority in the agricultural and pastoral world. These things make up between them a vast arm of assistance upholding the primary industries of the Dominion. They have built up these industries to their present position—in average value the premier position of the world. The comparison is not colonial. It is universal. It has shown that New Zealand has no reason to fear comparison with its great neighbour Australia, that not only does it beat that great continental storehouse of wealth’ and productive power, but that it has surpassed Canada the prolific, and the United Kingdom of bulkiest performance. As for its chief rival of the Argentine, the figures of the comparison show a gulf which seems to assure su-

premacy to New Zealand for ages to come. It is a seeming which is sure lif New Zealanders bo but true to 'themselves to be realised. Thus it is that our primary industries have been fostered to the top of the world. Tiio Lands Department was, of course,) the beginning, and tho offshoots car-i ned on the work as ifc grew, and as a separate department of many divisions brought it to its present success. To this great system the present Government has added a sort of finishing touch in the shape of the Board of Agriculture just established. , Wishing, as for tho sake of the great interests at stake wo cordially do, that board all possible success in the sphere allotted to its useful efforts, wo cannot help remarking that it would have been better for its future if its composition had been a littlo more widely representative- Familiarity with tho practical side of tho question of close settlement is apparently wanting in the list 'of members.

Another department Was added early in the development to the battery of useful helpfulness—the Land Purchase Department. It did grand work, as the statistics of tho Lands Department amply prove. Though the cost per head of tho new holders appears largo—and our timid critics omit to tnako allowance for the families and tho dependents which materially reduce the cost per head —the fact can not be gainsaid that the expenditure is profitable to both tho State and the individual. The critics should follow Mr Massey’s way of putting things, when he talks of those 37,500 acres of Hawke’s Bay recently parcelled among 300 families. His is quite the right way of looking at it. But the need for addition to the yield of the primary industries has shown that the operations of this department are not sufficient, for the simple reason that tho land suitable for closer settlement eludes the best efforts of its officers. The “Reform” Government has a large record on paper of lands purchased, half of which were under negotiation with their predecessors. But, however the incidental credit may bo divided, one thing is certain. Tho difficulty of these purchases at rates remunerative to the community is now almost prohibitive. That is the main difficulty of the situation. It is a difficulty which, must he faced fair and square. Usoletss to exalt the Lands Department and its officers; they are very useful and valuable, just as they always have been. But in the matter of getting land for close settlement they are no longer tho power they were when the fertile lands of the Crown were many and in convenient places—equally useless to rely on native lands or gum lands, or any other first hand country. The big estates are the only resource left. Tho Lands Department and its offshoots are ready to help* the close settlement which these lands will carry. But to get the lands first the Lands Department is powerless. Tho Taxation Department must bo employed to get them. That touches the difficulty every Government has to face and deal with. Better face it resolutely than talk even with tho tongue of an angel about the importance of tho Lands Department.