HERITAGE OF THE LAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26043, 5 January 1946, Page 6

HERITAGE OF THE LAND

NOT TO BE EXPLOITED NEED FOR CO-OPERATION In respect to climatm soils, and variety of produce New Zealand 'had few countries to equal it, said Mr Robert McSaw in an address on Thursday night to the New Zealand Student Christian Movement Conference at John McGlashan College. His subject was “New Zealand and the Land.” Mr McCaw said that the early settlers, lacking experience, had made some mistakes, such as the burning-off of high country, shallow ploughing, and the introduction of the rabbit. The destruction of the natural grasses had exposed the soil to the wind and rain, which washed it down into the valleys, causing great floods. Mining processes had made much land useless, and much more land near the mining sites had been worked out by excessive cropping to feed the miners. This land, after being abandoned, became overgrown with gorse and provided a refuge for rabbits. Present-day farmers—good and. bad, selfish and unselfish, happy and discontented—were about as mixed as their produce, but erosion was being combatted by regional planning, committees and other organisations. Progress, however, was bound to be slow. Mr McCaw drew attention to the need for farmers to co-operate in killing rabbits on each other’s property; without that, farming might consist of working for the rabbits all the summer and killing them off all the winter. Profit Sharing Suggested The farmers would do well, in the speaker’s opinion, to take the farm labourers more into their confidence, and work out some system of profitsharing. The main obstacle to employing more men, however, was the lack of domestic help for the overworked farmer’s wife. Although, too, many farmers were getting on in years, and some 2000 returned servicemen were waiting for farms, the farmer could not retire until he found a house elsewhere. and that was next door to impossible. Speaking of land tenure, Mr McCaw said the land was not only a heritage, but a trust for the future, and the land laws should be re-examined with the advice and co-operation of the farmers, taking this fact into account and giving family inheritance its due place. Education in rural areas, he continued, should be for adults as well as children. The Christchurch Conference of Churches had said that a teacher with a vocation for rural work should be able to attain adequate advancement while remaining in the country. Rural community centres were on the way, and when they arrived such-specialist country teachers might give lectures to the adult population besides their school duties. The attempt to stabilise farm prices during the war years had failed through inability to control salaries and wages, Mr McCaw said, and the time lag in the rectification of this anomaly had done more than anything else to destroy the plan for cooperation between farmers and the Government. Farmers were keenly interested in legislation and the organisation of the industry. The reports of the Christchurch conference had said: "The relationship of people to one another and to the land cannot reach its perfection except where there is a vision and sense of responsibility essentially Christian,” and it was for individuals to give a lead in a policy of conciliation, so that farmers and other workers should try to understand each other’s difficulties as they did not do at present. High Costs and Low Prices The speaker said that New Zealand’s farmers were, after all, producing at higher cost for lower prices than any others. Although British production had increased, there was great need in the world and no lack of markets to work for. Lazy farmers to-day must either step up or step off. In conclusion, Mr McCaw emphasised that the earth was the Lord’s, a heritage to guard and not to be exploited. It was the duty of Christians, especially students, to foster a spirit of co-operation. “If ye know these things,” Mr McCaw quoted, “happy are ye if ye do them,”