NEWS AND VIEWS

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXIV, Issue 8848, 28 November 1935, Page 4

NEWS AND VIEWS

BRITAIN'S UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM LAND SETTLEMENT NO CURE SCOPE NOT SUFFICIENT LONDON, November 1. Can land settlement cure unemployment? Viscount Astor and Mr Seebohm Rowntree organised an inquiry to prove that it could. Very soon they were forced to the opposite conclusion, namely, “that the scope for increr^-' 1 land settlement in this count.,, . emarkably small, and the potential benefit to employment of extensive small-holdings development is, in reality, infinitesimal,’' says the “Daily Telegraph.” A book embodying the Astor Committee’s report has been published. The line of argument is this:— Three tendencies —slowing down of the population of the Western world, speeding up of agricultural productivity and high agrarian protectionism —have made it probable that fewer persons will be required in producing food and that the present conditions of over-production and unremunerative prices will persist. We have already cut to the bone our imports of vegetables, poultry and eggs. If we restricted further our imports of staple foodstuffs such as wheat and meat, we should be aggravating the economic difficulties of the world, imperilling our good relations with the Empire and other countries, raising our cost of living,, and increasing unemployment elsewhere. Better marketing might increase consumption, but there is little or no Indication of it. Machinery is reducing agricultural employment, and is in favour of the larger type of farm. With many of these findings no observer of agricultural conditions will disagree. But is the prospect of agricultural expansion really so gloomy? Sir John Orr has estimated that 30.000. of the population are spending too little on food. To raise cheir diet to the required standard would increase consumption by 3100.000. per annum in retail prices. Machinery displaces labour, but it makes things cheap. The most highly-mechanised farms are reporting more production and more employment than ever before in their history. Such criticisms, however, do not detract from the value of this most useful report.