THE NEED FOR RURAL REFORM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 116, 8 July 1911, Page 6

THE NEED FOR RURAL REFORM.

Even in now countries the abnormal growth of tno cities as compared with xne country districts is exciting alarm, while, in the old countries it is recognised as a national danger. Sir Horace Plunkett, whose, iiio-intorcsi has been the rural betterment of Ireland, has written a notable article on the subject for the Loudon Post, much of. which is .applicable even to Hew Zealand and Australia. Sir Horace, holds that all the Englishspeaking nations have * during the period of their remarkable expansion, suffered la a special degree—much ittore, that, it, than other nations on the' same general level of civilisation—from what may. be called the overurbanisation of thought ; that in their recent" economic evolution the rural interest has been unduly subordinated tb that of commerce and maiuifactui e, and; that their civilisation;'has there-fore-acquired a dangerously oue-sid. ! The chief causes, I think! are the obsession,of urban industrial development on the one band and that of "the pioneering process, which in new countries precedes , and delays settled country life, on the other, and also tlie immunity from tho fear of

foreign invasion so long enjoyed by ail tho English-speaking countries. tc.rfPhO'J mfluorfeO'-of tnis ' r last--'*ea\tse hasbeen negative, and its force can therefore best be realised by observing how the nations of continental Europe, with whom alone coin pari son is possible, have been forced by'tha. necessities of ..defence to develop do’vtlie most both the human and tj|e jpaieai’if' resources of the countryside. The. -evil effects of rural neglect gum hardly be disputed. They are partly economic and partly social, intellectual, and. moral. They may be briefly summed up mider six heads: (1) The diminution of food supply from the internal resources of the countries affected and consequent increase in the cost of living, to say nothing of the military question involved; (2) wastage of the chief of those national assets which, unlike mineral resources, are capable of renewal; (3) physical deterioration of tlie race; (4) the drying up of the source from which the ur ban section of the community must draw its vitality; (5) inefficiency in the chief productive industry, and consequently in thb school in which a large part of the community receives its preparation for the work of life; and (6) the economic depression consequent upon failure to develop the internal trade of the country, the consumption of the rural population depending upon the productiveness of the industry by which they live. The essentials of rural reform cannot be better stated than they have been in the formula we Use in Ireland—better farming, better business, better living. Wo need improved technical methods, in agriculture, improved organisation in the business connected with the industry, and better social ; conditions in rural life to counteract the attraction of the modern town.