The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1922. THE DRIFT TO THE CITY.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1211, 28 February 1922, Page 4

The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1922. THE DRIFT TO THE CITY.

■RECOGNISING that farming pursuits have reached a point at which returns are not sufficient to recompense the labour and effort expended, one of the problems of the immediate future must ibe to further arrest the drift of population from the country to the towns. Already, even before farming was reduced to the level of an unprofitable industry, New Zealand shared the experience which was common to all civilised countries, and had a rapid growth in the towns and a slower increase of its rural dwellers. It is no doubt inevitably a part of the industrial and commercial system that obtains to see humanity 'lured to city life in droves, and the experience of the last century has proved the tremendous momentum that has been given to city building. This progress has been entirely disproportionate to the progress of the country, and the drift to the towns goes on wherever civilisation makes headway. And New Zealand, in this respect at least, is perfectly civilised. At the census of 1881 but 39.80 per cent of the population lived in the towns; but'by gradual progress the ratio in 1916 had increased to 53.24 per cent. Wei have tracts of country sparsely occupied as yet: closer settlement is much more a prospective thing than a realisation, and yet, despite the amount of el'bow room in the country, the town dwellers are increasing in proportion year by year, while those of the country are decreasing. And the tendency will be for this to increase in ratio now that the returns for practically all primary produce are unequal to capital and labour employed in production. The situation calls for very serious thought of those engaged in political or local government. The explanation is not found in any particular brand of land settlement policy: there have ibeen varieties of .policy in the last forty years. A survey of the position throughout the civilised world suggests a. deep-seated cause. It was well expressed by a poor old Irishwoman of New York, who had been rescued from one of its slums by some benevolent folk and sent iby them into the country. She found her way back to her old haunts in the course of a few weeks. " Couldn't you find work enough?" she was asked. " Yes." "'Didn't you have enough to eat and to wear, and weren't you comfortable?" "Yes." "Well, then, why did you come back here to starve rather than live there in comfort?" "People are more company than stumps," she replied. She was right. There is a fundamental 'longing for " company " on the part of us all. The town is its proof and symbol. Civilisation, as the very word suggests, implies the civis, the citizen, in contrast to the homeless nomad. In recent years earnest statesmanship has tried coaxing townfolk " 'back to the land," or at least to the suburbs. It has not succeeded as well as its earnestness desired. And to-day there appears only one positive remedy. Instead of spending effort vainly on attempts to turn the tide of life hack from the city to the country, men affairs should devote themselves to a means of making rural life more attractive and 'less inconvenient. Good roads and other means of communication, electric power, educational facilities, and opportunities of social entertainment are needed in the country. But what do we find? Large sums of money, even during a .period of financial stress, are devoted to the cities—for tramways and the like, to make life there more congenial. This money could be ibetter utilised in the country, and ultimately even the cities would benefit by the more systematic development of the country. A happier and a more prosperous rural community will prove the best asset New Zealand could possibly have, and instead of pandering to the cities the Government, should face the task of making life in the country more congenial and less of a privation. The

only sane Way to arrest the drift cityward is to provide in the country the facilities and the opportunities which modern civilisation demands. Whatever is being attempted in this direction needs to ibe considerably reinforced with further and more determined effort. Particularly at this moment, when country life, beside being unattractive, has (become unremunerative, does the Government need to face its responsibility to the country in a more determined manner than it has done in the past.