EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXII, Issue 6792, 18 January 1897, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Several Opposition journals have lately busied themselves very much in an effort to make it appear thab failure is the reason for the determination of the Ministry to sell the State farm at Levin. Bub, in their anxiety to score a point against the Ministry, they have jumped hastily to a conclusion, and, as is not at all unusual in such case 3, the conclusion is altogether wrong. The State farm has nob been a failure. On the conbrary, it has been a complete success, and that is why it is being sold. It was never inbended bhab the Government should enter into agricultural competition with the settlers, by continuing the working of the farm purely as a business concern. The Governmenb had two objects in esbablishing a State farm—first, to afford temporary employment for those in need of assistance, and secondly, bo make the experiment of providing improved farms for those in search of such properties. Ib has been shown that the first of these objects can be served without entailing any cost upon the taxpayers, and that ib is possible bo turn surplus labor to profitable account in improving State lands and preparing them for occupation. A return which was laid before Parliament lasb session shows bhab for bhe year 1894-5 bhe total expenditure, including the purchase of land, buildings, stock, implements, fruib and shelter trees, wages, etc., amounbed bo L 6,764 15a 3d, and bhat bhe cash receipbs for the period were L 422 12s 2d, representing 6| per cent, on bhe outlay. For the year 1895-6 the total expenditure, including the original cost of land, etc., amounted to L 7668 lis 18d, and the cash receipts to LBl2 14a 3d, or 10*59 per cent, on the expenditure. Assuming that the farm can be sold at a price which will return the outlay upon the land and its improvement, the allegation thab the experiment has been a costly failure musb be viewed as a malicious invention of the Opposition. Of course, it has yet to be seen whether or not anyone is prepared to buy the farm at such a price as will recoup the outlay, bub upon thab point there is little room for doubt. According to the Manawatu Farmer, competent agriculturists aver thab the improved land is worth L2O an acre, and that probably more than thab will be obtained for ib. Should this anticipation be realised, the State will reap a handsome profit from the whole business. At anyrate, all the facts go to demonstrate that the experiment has been so successful as to justify its continuance, and even its extension so as to embrace work of an educational character that would benefit the agricultural industry of the colony generally. As we have already indicated, the sale of the Levin State farm does not imply the abandonment of the idea. It is, we believe, intended to establish other farms, and the casual labor for whose benefit the Levin farm was'instituted will be employed clearing Crown lands for the purpose, as well as for occupation by settlers. We hope thab when the Government establish a new farm they will make provision for carrying on experiments in various branches of agriculture, and for accepting cadets to undergo such a training in scientific agriculture as would enable them to become good prac-

tical farmers. Such an institution, besides providing employment for casual labor, could be made a means of disseminating a large amount of valuable knowledge that would raise the standard of agriculture, and enable the colony to keep pice with the rest of the world in the march of progress in an industry that science is steadily and surely revolutionising. It may at once ..be conceded that such an institution would possibly not be entirely self-sustaining, but at the worst its co3t to the colony would not be at all serious, and more than value would be obtained for the expenditure It may bp urged with all the force of truth that in all our expenditure upon education very little is done to spread knowledge upon the subject of agriculture, than which none has a wider or more important bearing upon the prosperity and future greatness of the colony.