AN EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY.

Timaru Herald, Volume LV, Issue 5523, 27 September 1892, Page 4

AN EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY.

_*. — . In the course of a speech on the Land Bill, Mr Duthie, one of the members for Wellington city, made some suggestive remarks on the modorn migration of rural population!! into tha towns. All sorts of reasons have beon given for this movement, but tho reason stated by Mr Duthio (whether his own_ or tho authors ho quotes does not signify) covers the whole ground, and reducos the rest to a seoosdary place. The reason is that improvement of maohinery and implements enables rural occupations to ba carriod on with less labour. Mr Duthie said : — I am going to quote figures from o work of Mr Leonard Courtney whioh, I think, will prove what I aeseit. Although, perbapj, they are on somewhat broad grounds, still I think they are applicable. He finds that in England and Wales in the year 1801 the population was nine millions, end of this population three millions resided in tho towns. In 1881 the population bad risen to over twenty-six millions, and fifteen and a half millions of tbat population resided in towns. The population, therefore, had increased threefold, and, although there bad been a fivefold increase in the towns, in the country there was only an increase of 76 per cent. With the development of implements and maohinery for the cultivation of the country, there is now lobs profitable ocoupation for the people iti the country disiriols, Iu Ireland wo have another case in proof of the same argument. In 1841 the population was over eight millions ; now it is under five millions. The country is without or has few town industries. The people have left the country and gone abroad. There was no occupation for them. They could not live upon the land unli! tho farms became enlarged into farms of each size as would allow of economic occupation. Jo France, where by legislative restrictions the size of holdings ia exceptionally low, tha country population has also diminished, and the town population has inoreated, although the population of the whole country has not inoreaeed ; it is stagnant. In Sweden and Korway, whioh was supposed to be bo tbe ideal country of peasant proprietary, the land was subdivided, owned, and occupied by a residential population. But there again, in Norway, in 1801 the town population was only 9 per cent, and in 1888 it was 22 per coot of the whole population. In Sweden there are similar results. Emigrants wera leaviDg tbe country to tbe extent of a hundred thousand in the years from 1880 to 1883 from Norway, and a hundred and sixty-five thousand from Sweden. In the United States the town population in 1800 was 39 per cent of tho whole population and in 1880 it had risen to 22 P 5 percent. On these broad grounds — for these results aro universal, and the outcome of economic laws which ultimately assert themselves, despito whnt may eeom an outrage to sentimental feelings, — wo cannot enforce any exceptional state of things in 3?ew Zealand; Where machinery aud implements are used for the cultivation of tho foil a large resident population io not required. They cannot be maintained there, and those broad influences which aro at work everywhere naturally induce people to seek and, find profitable employment- where it ia most likely to be fonod ; and, similarly, we cannot in NewZealand, induce poople by legislation to go and live in the country if there is no profitable occupation for them there. Now, we &ra entirely dependent for (our progress in material welfare and prosperity upon the development of thecountry. The towns, in order to be prosperous, have only the country to look to. By reason of our distance from the markets of the world, and under our excessive taxation, we can never develop industries beyond the requirements of the country itself ; and if we place heavy burdens on the shoulders of the country population, and load them with all manner of restrictions, depend upon it that tho development of the country will ba arrested — that our towns will, ao a natural consequence, be dull, and that our artissne will be short of employment. Tbrse things go band-in-hand together. The town population is dependent upon the prosperity of the country. If we do anything whioh has the effect of materially retarding the development of the country, it very speedily exert b a correopontling effect on tbe prosperity of Ihe towns. We shall find, if all theee restrictions ore imposed upon our country settler' that he will revise the fact that he lias ntf career before bin.'. Ho will see tbat thern is no iudnoamenf to siimuluto hia efforts — that lio is n:irrnved down lo a bare Bubfistonce j and we cannot under such circumstances, oxpei't tbe t'riuiitrv to progress. ■ Mr Duihie went, on to .-how that in oounIrios wberp fjucliinery is not used in agriculture, there ia much more human labour ismpioyi'il on tlio lau'd, jot tho reßol'B are nat rtc' in! ttcfory locfo'.ng '.it tho coruniuni'v as a who)? .- -Only :i.fo.v month* Bgo I happened lo b>' travelling 'hrnugh Italy, and one morning, in puesirg from Homo to Nap'os, ono mw cold, winter morning, I sr:is Blruch with astonishment at 'Opine in fiVM after field that we parsed i»hp?s of women working with rude mattock." in Ilia cultivation of the 9 >il. Passing into Egypt, 1 thero «p;;iin I observed a similar want of prigrpiir*. I observed in übb there the wenden Mouph of tho f aahion and "hope that we *ee !11 Biblical pictures of the implements user] in !hot:iio of Abraham. I saw therein ono cko;i tl'o plough drawn by a milch cow av,d a donkry Tubed together. Q.'kat utajjDiition is the ribu'ltof similar interferences with, and ri'ot.ric!ions upon die occupation of tho toil. Dow can the poor people be expected to develop the " resources of the country, and to send their produce abroad to tho markets of tho world, if they are to cultivate- the eoil under such eruditions ? If no "incentive; U set before tho people to btimulf.t-0 thoir exertions —nn attractive futurs placed bi-fore them— they must, in the nuture of tilings, remain stagnant, and the country at a standstill. In fact, instead of tho country progressing it will be found to retrograde. ,