NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 15 (Supplement)

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

UPS AND DOWNS OF PROGRESS. MR. S. G. SMITH URGES OPTIMISM. “Sixty years ago Taranaki was a province with a reputation, as far as the rest of the colony was concerned, and a district to be avoided. Other provinces of New Zealand, some undisturbed by Native problems, some prospering from gold discoveries and others possessing lands much more easily brought to production than Taranaki were much more popular as centres for new settlers. The struggles of the pioneer farmers of this province have been so often told in the columns of the Daily News that probably none of your readers have failed to appreciate the struggle for existence in those days. Bartering with home ■.churned butter at 3d and 4d a pound was practically the only source of securing the essentials of life. “But despite the hardships of the living conditions, the unceasing and laborious toil, the almost lack of total compensating amenities, the men and women of the day carried on full of hope and

confidence in the ultimate profit of their labour and the future of the districtwhich even then was proclaimed the Garden of New Zealand. The establishment of the factory, system and later the almost universal acceptance of cooperation speedily raised the status of the farmer from a position of perpetual struggle to one of comparative stability. “Progress in dairying in Taranaki during the last 25 years of the last century was truly remarkable, and during that period the increasing productivity of the lands, coupled, with the modern methods of treatment continually being adopted, brought the province right to the forefront as the most progressive district in the country and closer settlement followed apace. There have been periods

during and since those days when the dairy farmer has found himself hard up against it through weak markets, but with a patience and fortitude that surely must be his inheritance from his pioneer forebears, he has, in 90 per cent, of the times, won through, and will again. “The adoption, of better farming methods and closer analysis and reduction of his costs are even to-day, with prices at the lowest level for years, enabling him to carry on and win through. Legislative assistance has certainly been of no small aid to him, but assuredly no one will lose by that help in the long run. Meantime, all that is wanted is that the community continue to present a cheerful front.of optimism and confidence. The cry of ‘Wolf’ by some who profess to be the farmers’ guide and friend has been too much heard in the land, and is totally unjustified.

“The land is still the best security New Zealand has to offer investors, and the steadfastness of the responsible dairy farmer will surely, and very soon, result in capital looking with a very much more favourable eye on farm security than might otherwise have been the case.

“The outstanding feature of the past six decades has been the amazing progress. I can remember as a small boy seeing farmers riding to town, sometimes with a small box provided with a leather strap through which the arm was slipped, and that box contained the butter output from the farm. Another means of transport was the pack-horse, and too often was seen the bags of fungus, in many cases the only commodity for which the farmer received cash. To-day we have the swift moving motor-car and motor-truck at the service of the farmer, and these means of transit, together with the use of electric power, the telephone and the wireless, not to mention the up-to-date methods provided by railways and service cars, have meant so much in bringing the Taranaki farmer right up-to-date, and in easing and eradicating the old and laborious tasks which in the old days made farming real ‘hard labour.’

“To all the old pioneers who battled against tremendous odds and laid the foundations of a great province, and to those who brought to us the more modern methods, we ought at this stage to express our graeful thanks for all they have done in the great work of national development. S. G. SMITH.