AUSTRALIAN IN HAMILTON.

Waikato Times, Issue 12445, 30 November 1912, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN IN HAMILTON.

SOME INTERESTING LMPEESSIONS. RUAKURA FARM EULOGISED. I have been struck with many things since landing on your soil altogether outside the beautiful green pastures which abound between Auckland and here, and the wonderful thermal springs which lend enchantment beyond and which always charm Australians when on their pilgrimage to this .Mecca of Wonderlands, said .\ir Shakespeare, secretary of the Australasion Ptov.nei.:) Press Association, when seen by a Times' leoortcr :hort!v after his arrived in Hamilton this week. There are many, lessons which Australia at any rate can learn fr; in you, aril as a mere record-

ing Angel from that part it is my privilege to learn those !• ssc> s in . riCui to try and teach them to others. CONCRETE. What struck me fiist on arrival at Auckland last week was the advance you were making in concrete. The new wharves you are erecting to beautify and vitalise the very pretty land locked harbor there are truly a credit to your foresight and enterprise, as they also are to the modernness of the methods you apply. If I divine the position aright, concrete is your future Maseolt. And nowhere does it seem to set so well and to such perfection as in the districts 1 have visited. What with the increasing scarcity of suitable building timber, trie limited life of wooden houses, and the costliness of upkeep both in renovation and insurance on the one hand, and the adaptability of cement to any design, its use in enhancing color schemes, its permanence and the initial cost not much greater than wood, while less than brick, on the other hand stamp it as the future building material of the world. In Australia, however, the same good results are not secured, due I think chiefly to climatic conditions. But apart from that, in a land where white ants attack land structures and cobra destroys the stoutest timber fixed in water, -wood piles are *still being consigned" to their fate in most of tlie Australian harbors '. RAILWAYS. There were many other matters that afforded proof of the real character and absolute enteiprise of your people, but none 'so much as the strict economy coupled with efficiency practised in your raiiway systein. To demonstrate what I mean would require comparisons. This is unnecessary here, save to repeat that the way you are linking up your country at the barest minimum of cost, with every, consideration for the practical side and little for the ornate or non-productive but costly side of the business is a credit to tie nation. Posterity can weil afford to add the I rill out of the savings they inho:it. But fine cacuct travel your railw :ys without n. ting another phase of your rational life-that of overcoming any natural defect rather than de~ luring it. AFFORESTATION/ The landmarks on every hill or piece of' exposed country in the shape of luxuriant trees bear eloquent testimony to this, culminating in the /great national forests of useful timber you are now planting over your less valuable land in the more remote mountainous country, and which serve the dual purpose of beautifying the handiwork of nature as well as providing material for the operation of generations to come. Your affoiestation scheme is a far-sighted and valuable one that yields regard to-day and will, like wine, improve with age. As 1 you are only too well acquainted with what has heen accomplished and what is proposed, I will not say more on that subject.

THE RUAKUR A FARM. But what, in my humble opinion, is the downing glory of your enterprise is the establishment of 'your local agricultural farm. Hamilton appears to be happily situated for such an experimental station. Placed right on the trunk, line between the two great cites of the Island and free from the national see-saw which rivalry between them must produce, it appears to be located right on the fringe of the rich lands that lay towards Auckland as distinct from that great area of good to poor lands—in which patches of very rich lands are rare—on the plains and .nountain ranges that sweep along its eastern boundary. It is the profitable occupation of this vast area of what has been in the past considered indifferent land that so much of the future prosperity, no' only of your district, but broadly speaking the rest of New Zealand, must depend. 1 was delighted to find that science was being invoked to overcome the problem. The draining of j.he vast swamp land is truly a national undertaking. And from what I have seen of reclaimed swamp land on the northern rivers of New South Wales, I will be surprised indeed if this area, which in the past has doubtless been looked upon as a bar to your progress, dots not eventually prove itself to be the "pick of the bunch." But it will require careful attention and exhaustive experiment to produce that result. That is what you are doing. And I say without qualification is that what has already been accomplished and demonstrated at your farm is worth more to the Domini n than weie a second B ndigo lead found in your district or another Newcastle Borehole seam of coal struck there ! What has been demonstrated in lucerne alone is something that every farmer in the Dominion should know and take to heart. For it must revolutionise farm operations even on the richest lands. With lucerne plots established, there is no need for growing fodder crops or of fearing the .ravages of contrary weather—be it wet or dry.' But for a very small fringe of coastal lands on the eastern slopes, Australia is not bjessed with the rainfall you enjoy. But in the rain-favored area lucerne is the great stand-by. In the dryer areas, where plots -can be irrigated, it is the country's salvation. Take an instance. Mr N. A. Gatenby saved the whole of his stick on Junalong staticn during the 18051002 drought and kept the fat stock marki j supplied, whi'e in las district at least ten million sheep and almost all the large stock perished. On the opposite side of the river Edoio and Co. lost something like 125,000 Wanganella sheep and only saved the residue of Burrawong stock by expending over £IOO,OOO in fodder imported from all over Australia and the Argentine! I was present when Mr Gatenby demonstrated, under Government supervision, that he could carry 75 sheep to the acre in the hottest and dryest vear on record (1902). And tins entirely by the aid of lucerne. Then there is the remarkable feat accomplished by your farm in producing a rust-resisting oat. What this means to your country and the world at large must mean millions per annum in the years to come. And to Ilmkura Form belongs the entire credit. Its efforts to produce a blight-resisting potato as well as to improve or introduce more prolific forms of pasture, to say nothing of what an object lesson the dairying section of the f, rm must serve to stockowners everywhere is a matter I need not refer to. For I misjudge your people if they do not quickly apply eaoh lesson. Still one advance is required to make your labors complete. It is to establish an agricultural college on the farm.

PRESS MATTERS. What have I to say about the New Zealand Press? Well, said Mr Shakespeare, 1 have come over here to learn and enjoy myself, not to talk shop. But since you ask the question. I might express the opinion I have formed. It is that the press of the two sister countries have developed on different lines, and that as a result of different conditions. In the Dominion the people are nothing if they are not patriotic. They believe intensely in their country, and, in the more restricted sense, in everything

that pertains to their own district. The result is that newspaper enterprise--like all other bus ; neises—finds a whole-hearted support from local people'. As a resif.t of tins even daily newspapers are to be found in centies of comparatively small population, and the great newspapers of the large cities are restricted in pushing circulation beyond the confines of their own jurisdiction. To enable daily papers to serve the higher purpose of their calling and supply local requirements it is necessary for them to be well supplied with a digest of the doings of New Zealanders everywhere, as well as the trend of international happenings, in addition to purely local news. 1 his demand has forced the newspaper proprietors to co-operate in procuring an efficient news service. And this co-operation has, in turn, lead to the organisation of what I feel safe in saying is the most complete in the world. You can deduct from this that my opinion is that your newspapers are, paper for paper, when compared with the populations they serve, not excelled anywhere. Now, the Australian press has developed on different lines. An Australian is cosmopolitan. He will trade with anybody. No local distinctions influence him. He buys and sells where it him best—even if the foreigner gains. The press is therefore more individualistic than here. Each paper is more or less fighting a lone hand. And large sums are

spent by each paper in maintaining a whole retinue of correspondents for exelusive news. Just take an example. In Sydney an evening paprr —the Sun—is spending nothing Jess than £IO,OOO tins year on its own cable service. That is perhaps twice as much as the whole of tbe Dominion newspapers do. As it became a fight for the survival of the fittest papers in metropolitan areas had a much better chance than the rural papers. So far had this become general that twelve years ago the great city dailies had almost beaten down the virility of their country competitors. To fight this evil the rural newspaper proprietors <Rd for their commercial, scalps just what you have done for your news supply. They co-operated. And having placed their financial house in ord:r, all other things—including an efficient inter-State and international news service —is being added to them. Almost every State has now its own co-operative press association. The New South Wales Press Co-operative Company, which I manage, has in ten years completely altered press conditions in New South Wales. It has united all the papers, and at its annual conference in Sydney last month some 300 of the most representative country newspaper proprietors from all over the Commonwealth took part, One of the New Zealand delegates was Mr Tom Mills (Feilding Star), who is president of the Australasian Provincial Press Association, the federal organisation governing the whole of the State associations. It has brought the country newspaper on to a business basis. It attend; to the proper representation of all rural inte-rests in the metropolis, and secures for *aeh firm desiious of extending its clientele to the country as well as from those whishing to maintain and expand their country connection the quota of advertising necessary. It attends to the collection, compilation and despatch of all news. To-day it has its own cable service, and the smallest country paper receives its own international news as distinct from ci;y readers—arid usunliy several hours in advance of the latter. In short every phase of the multitudinous ramifications of press business is attended to, and the old "pull'* of metropolitan papers is not only destroyed but a new era of progress ushered in. In my opinion the hour has arrived for the New Zealand press to follow suit. It would lie to their own advantage and therefore to the benefit of the public they wish to serve. How do matters stand with the independent cable service in so far as .New Zealand is concerned? Well, the New Zealand Association is bound by contract not to publish any cable news except what it receives through the old combine. ' But while that is so. it has "ob!y come to the aid of the new independent service, and while prevented from publishing the service is supporting it by a monetary contribution. Now that the All Red Cable line has been laid between New Zealand and Australia it follows that the whole of our messages—for the independent service patronises only the national line—is now ticking every hour, day and night, through your Auckland post office on its way to Australia. That fine volume of new mnvs is actually in New Zealand before it reaches Australia, and thus were your press to use it they could gain delivery first hand of a large volume of new international news many hours before it could possibly arrive via the present source, the main portion of which comes via the Eastern Extension cable, and therefore has to run all round Australia and be re-despatched from Sydney before reaching the Dominion. I mistake the stolid independence of New Zealand men if they will longer subscribe to a'bond that has for its basic principle a negation r>f what is known as a free and untramelled press when they have an independent service at command, which, in addition to imposing no distasteful conditions, 's both comprehensive and expeditious and which at the same time patronises, for patriotic purposes, the Pacific cable, in which the \~e\v Zealand Government is so largely interested.