Educating New Zealanders

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 13, 6 April 1927, Page 7

Educating New Zealanders

Coming Land Conference

VALUE OF PRIMARY INDUSTRIES

In a country such as New Zealand the welfare of the towns is dependent largely on the prosperity of the adjacent farm lands. If all is not well with the primary producer, the effect is inevitably reflected on to the adjacent towns. It is the recognition of this fact that is largely responsible for the men of the Auckland district calling together next week delegates from all parts of the Dominion to discuss land settlement problems.

In all parts of New Zealand, especially during the last decade, leading business men and farmers have realised the need for an exhaustive investigation of the primary industries with a view to increasing production and making the man on the land more satisfied with his lot. The activities of Aucklanders since the Royal Show in November, when a conference on land settlement was held, have thus been watched with considerable interest and the further conference to be held on Wednesday next will be attended by delegates from all parts of New Zealand and, although every district may not be represented, the controlling committee can be assured that they will have the support of every progressive body in New Zealand. OBJECTS OF THE CONFERENCE Primarily the aim of the conference is to inaugurate a Dominion-wide organisation having for its object the stimulation of land settlement and primary production. The organisation so formed is to be called “The New Zealand Land Settlement and Development League.” An entirely non-political body, the league will aim at promoting and assisting any movement for the development and bringing into full production of all undeveloped, or partiallydeveloped lands, and strive in every way to increase the returns of the soil. The co-operation of both town and country interests is to be sought for this end. Prosecuting further the investigations already made by the Government officials of this country, and emulating the example of such countries as U.S.A. and Denmark, the promoters of the league aim at compiling and publishing iii simple form reliable information from scientific and practical sources in the Dominion and elsewhere as to the best methods and subsequent treatment of land, cropping and stocking. The league will collect and publish reliable information from official and private sources of all undeveloped, or partially-developed.

lands, and ascertain in connection with such lands their value, tenure and nature and investigate through every possible source the reasons for the backward conditions obtaining, and the best manner in which they may be met. The spirit of the whole movement is, in fact, contained in one plank of the league’s proposed constitution, which aims at educating public opinion to a true appreciation of the importance of increased production from the soil, and to encourage the rising generation to look to some phase of the primary industries as a career. EXPERIENCE ELSEWHERE The United States of America offers one of the best examples of the great scope for such a league though, admittedly, it is a Government institution which carries out most of the work there. The investigations of officers, of the Bureau of Information, Washington, have resulted in the compilation of an almost unique set of statistical returns showing results obtained in every part of the country. Experiments concerning every phase of the primary ' industry have been prosecuted and the farmer is provided, not only with results, but with a complete set of returns showing the cost of such experiments. Information contained in publications and other works which have been proved by practical experience to be useful to the cultivator of the soil has also been collected, and made available for the man on the land. THE LEAGUE’S POSSIBILITIES Presided over* by Sir Andrew Russell, it is expected that the conference to be held on Wednesday next will be attended by delegates from all parts of the Dominion. Certainly the well wishes of all progressive commercial and farming men will be with it. New Zealand offers great scope for develppment and the opportunities of any league embodying the objects to be placed before Wednesday’s conference j are almost unbounded.