WHERE FARMING MEANS RUIN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14821, 21 October 1920, Page 8

WHERE FARMING MEANS RUIN.

f "Let 11* go to Canada or Australia ' and have a tarns." . How maiiv thou-.iiids ol men have said that during the !>a-t yea:r How •■ mam thousand.- wiiT go out during the nr\t">;:ir. knowing nothing ot tin- huul ilu'v "are going to. and believing thai wherever., they go they will find tur.eii rYu. nun know more about- tanning than .Mr C hristophc.- Tumor, the Lintohishitv landowner, who ha- inadi' a r«!iini ni the Dominions at tin- re<i"e.-t ot the Kuval Colonial Institute, and ha* m-t i.-siielus report ("Land .Settlement tor e\-.Servi>.e .Men in the Oversea I)o----miinoun"). .Mr Tin nor ha- seen and li.-r. judged tor himself. He does not >hr:nk trom telling the real fact.-, and he make- it plain that then- are areas which .-hnuld he avoided. " For instance, he expresses apprehen--i.iii that the Canadian .Sottlenient : liu.Hd may incline to guiding setilc- ' m.-n: :■.» the provinces m which they • 'h:<ve command ot Federal Crown land. ' irri.f he add.-:—"If this leads to settle- ' ru. Nt ot British ex-service men on the [ prairie dry-helt. it wouid he disastrous. I Drv-belt tanning is wheat farming—or. i rather, it is gambling in wheat—and ! the poor man should not gamble.'* . Fie repeats this warning in detailed dist u.-sinn of the prairie provinces, and 1 fie. fares that the .settlement of British ex--oldiers on the dry belt, tsive under ; proper irrigation sthenics, .should he 1 "aho-oltitely ruled out.'' i Even where there is irrigation and good crops are secured, "the conditions of life are hard, especially for women. i there may be a few who like it, but. j personally. I hare not met one. woman ; who. after a Few years on the prairie, j was not longing to get away. The e.\t trenie cold in Winter and heat in sumi mi-r are trying to the nerves; this >s i the evidence I have heard from people I on all sides." I Mr Tumor affirms that a grave rr- ! Vonsihility will rest on the Imperial authorities if they do not guide the I'.nw of British ex-service men to oilier parts of Canada. Yet all other parts are not suitable. Mr Turner rules Quebec province out, and says that "there should be no further influx of British ex-ser/ice settlers . into Northern Ontario." t British Columbia is the place to which the flow of migration should, m Mr Tumor's opinion, be guided, but even "B. C." is not all a land of promise. : Xcw Zealand is. Mr Tumor thinks, perhaps "the most ideal country in the world for agriculture." but all land is much dearer than in the United Kingdom, and good and medium land has reached "exorbitant prices." Australia also has its pitfalls, and Mr Tumor believe*? that even among Australian ex-service men who are re- ' ing settled on small areas the per- . rentage of failure will be high, owing i to the risk of drought and its drain on capital.