The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. MONDAY, JULY 4, 1927. BEACON FIRES OF HISTORY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 87, 4 July 1927, Page 8

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. MONDAY, JULY 4, 1927. BEACON FIRES OF HISTORY

OTTAWA is n-ot yet the size of Auckland, but it is the capital of a wide dominion that could afford space for thirty-four New Zealands and all the adjacent islets in the Pacific, and still have left rather more territory than the North Island for the raising of wheat. To-day the trim city overlooking pleasant lands by the Rivers Rideau and Ottawa is the glowing rendezvous of an overseas British nation happy in it 3 celebration of sixty years of progressive Federal government. Canada’s rejoieing might well reverberate in echoes of goodwill and appreciation throughout the British Empire. The celebrations of the diamond jubilee of Canadian provincial federation for the purpose of national advancement mark a notable record in the Empire’s history, and tell a wonderful story of Dominion achievement. Nations are ruled by their imaginations as well as by the force of their laws, and in an age of materialism it is good to look upon the better symbols of nationhood and the deeper spirituality that shapes the destiny of a nation. And these, in Canada this historic year, have been given visible representation in the noble memorial Tower of Peace, commemorating Canada’s sixty thousand soldiers who fell in the World War because of their fealty to their Motherland and their belief in the high purpose of their Empire. For those who have experienced the joy of a tour of Canada and shared with Canadians the glowing charm of their continent, it will not be difficult to visualise the glory of the initial celebrations on Parliament Hill whence a host of spectators from many lands saw passing as a living picture of history a symbolic pageant of Canadian achievement. But the appeal of the commemoration was not confined to the concentrated festival in the political centre of the great Dominion. There was also the trail of beacon fires from the rugged coast of Labrador to the softer slopes of Vancouver Island. And what a romantic epic of adventure may be read in the smoke of their burning! Fires of peace from the rising of the sun over the Laurentian plateau and the orchard lands by the St. Lawrence ever westward to its setting beyond the Cordilleras—a glow of famous history across three thousand miles of peaceful and prosperous territory. But the real mote of the occasion is sounded in the King’s felicitous message: “ While within their own bounds Canadians have before them the task of developing their ancestral heritage, in a yet wider sphere the nation must take an ever-inereasing share in solving the problems of the Empire.” There can be no doubt concerning the response. Canada is British at the core.

POPULATION AND BUTTERFAT

PUT briefly, the largely-increased population of the North Island is due more than anything else to butter-fat. Tbe South Island is unfortunate that it is so far behind in dairying, which supports a much larger number of people in proportion to acreage than the purely grazing branches of the pastoral industries. As a wealth-producer the cow is supreme. What a contrast in growth is offered in the population movements of the North and South! In 1861 the Europeans of the South numbered 57,000: those of tbe North, 42,000. It was only by very slow degrees that the Southerners were overtaken toward the end of the century: now the North possesses just on 62 per cent, of the total European population of the Dominion. This remarkable development, as Dr. E. P. Neale pointed out in a lecture at the Leys Institute on Saturday, has been largely due to the more recent opening up of land and the accompanying growth of the dairying industry. Of eleven counties in New Zealand which show increases in population of more than 20 per cent, in the five years between 1921 and 1926, nine are in tbe Auckland Province. Most significant is that the natural increase in the North is no greater than in the South, but young men from tbe colder and less-expansive island make their way to a more temperate zone in increasing numbers, and our climate appears to have an appeal for immigrants. It is a remarkable fact that once a centre reaches a certain stage of growth its development is accelerated. It becomes the magnet which draws its supplies from all around in increasing quantity, and the Larger it grows the farther its influences spread and the more far-reaehing and powerful its attraction becomes. And the attractions of this island have by no means been fully unfolded. Despite tbe peculiar statement made last week by the Minister of Lands, that it was now hard to find anyone willing to settle on the land, there are thousands who wonld only be too willing to do so if the land were provided for them and they were given a chance under conditions which promised a fair measure of success. Lands north of Auckland, once considered worthless, have been proved, by suitable treatment, to be of great fertility and capable of returning handsome profits to skilled and industrious husbandmen. This North Auckland area is one that has hardly been scratched; its potentialities are incalculable. It Is for the Government to devise a land policy worthy of the name—one that will accomplish settlement, not an apologetic pretence that permits a Minister to declare it is difficult to find anyone to settle on the soil. And this applies to the South, as well as the North. The people of this part of New Zealand do not desire to prosper at the expense of those of another; they would rejoice at a policy of land settlement which would promote the progress of the Dominion as a, whole.