CAUSE AND EFFECT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 90, 29 November 1911, Page 2

CAUSE AND EFFECT.

(To tlio Editor “Stratford Post.”) Sir, —As there appears to be considerable difference of opinion in regard to what has been the real cause of New Zealand’s prosperity. The whole of the Liberal candidates and a section of their supporters are endeavouring to mislead the young electors and those who do not trouble to think for themselves into the belief that the past and- present prosperity of the Dominion has been brought about by the Liberal measures enacted by the party which has held office since .1891, and that the future prosperity of the country rests with the Liberal Party, and if the. electors fail to return them to power at the forthcoming polls, the country will surely stagnate. This is, in my opinion, contrary to facts, and I will, sir, with your permission, prove to your readers that the prosperity of Now Zealand has been brought about by a number of causes, in which legislation has played but a small part. In the first place, Nature showered her gifts on New Zealand frith a lavish hand, such as an equable climate, good and sufficient rainfall, the country never suffering, as a whole, from a drought. It is true that during some seasons a district may not receive sufficient moisture, which is never serious and does "not affect the Dominion as a whole. Numerous rivers and permanent streams of pure running water, are to bo found throughout tiie whole of the Dominion. There are millions of fertile acres, suitable for pastoral and agricultural pursuits. There are opposite seasons for our markets (England) which enables the New Zealand farmer to dairy and fatten stock in the summertime, and to sell his produce during the English winter. Contrast these natural gifts with those of the Australian and Danish farmer, tlie former having but few permanent rivers and streams of good running water . The latter country is handicapped by having to dairy during the cold European winters so as to suit the English market. In the second place the energy, the industry and the up-to-dateness of the man on the land, who as a dairyman and meat producer made it his business to improve Ids herds by the importation of the best breeding stock from the Old World, and by using the most up-to-date machinery procurable, thereby keeping abreast of the times, both in the freezing works and dairy factory, has enabled the farmer not only to keep on level terms with the foreign competitor, but to outclass him generally. Thirdly, there were science and tiiose brainy men who invented the refrigerator and cream separator, and lastly the milking machine. These men made it possible for the colonial farmer to market his produce in the ready made and inexhaustible markets of England, and in the near future, the Continental market of Europe. These men, whose names are very seldom mentioned, and 1 venture to state there is not one farmer in ten familiar with their names, not only saved the farmers from partial ruin and despair, but saved the country from a state of bankruptcy. Without the refrigerator it would be impossible for the farmer to place, in a fresh condition, his produce on the English market. Neither could the dairy farmer have produced a suitable article of butter, without the aid of the cream separator. The milking machine has come to stay, and will bo the means of lessening the hard work performed by the dairymen in the milking sheds, and will also increase the dairying output. Without the aid of the refrigerator and cream separator the farmers to-day would not got more than fourpence per lb for their butter, twopence per lb for dieese, and one penny per lb for meat. The progress of the Dominion in the manner of land settlement, reading and railway construction would be much slower than it is to-day and we all know that the present system of reading the backblocks and railway construction is too slow, and unsatisfactory.

1 prophesy that in the near future the farmers of New Zealand will unite and elect a suitable and lasting monument in honour of those brainy

men, who were the original inventors of the refrigerator and cream separator. It is true that the initiation, by the Government, of the grading system of our produce, lias done much good, hut the benefits received from that source have been counterbalanced by the continual increasing of the unimproved land values for the purpose of taxation, and to show the Jew money-lenders that there is still a margin of security for further borrowing.—l am, etc., F. J. JACKSON. Stratford, November 28.