180 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



This machine-made attitude of mind is fundamentally 

 wrong ; it has caused the neglect of the land, and the 

 failure to understand its importance. This attitude has 

 influenced the course of events in the vast Britains over- 

 seas, still mainly dependent upon agriculture, nearly as 

 much as in the home country with its highly developed 

 urban industrialism. 



So that in our new countries oversea, in spite of the 

 fact that they are still mainly in the " agricultural stage " 

 (i.e. dependent upon agriculture), we see the over-rapid 

 development of great cities and the neglect of the rural 

 side. Instead of making every effort to develop the 

 land and increase its production, much energy has been 

 diverted to create and foster urban industries on a more 

 or less artificial basis, and to this end tariffs have been 

 imposed in an unscientific manner, with the resultant 

 evil that the population is thereby encouraged to con- 

 gregate in towns ; capital also is invested in urban 

 industries, which, from the national and imperial points 

 of view, could have been much more soundly employed 

 in the main industry — Agriculture. 



Again, taking the last sixty years, we have had no 

 migration policy and so have lost thousands of possible 

 cultivators who have settled in countries outside the 

 Empire. And during the same period we have had no 

 organized policy of settlement ; so that the large majority 

 of men who sought a career on the land were not placed 

 or used to the best advantage — either in their own interest 

 or in that of the nation. We must realize that the root 

 evil has been that we have had no migration policy and 

 no land settlement in the past. 



Further, it is necessary to recognize that for lack of 

 this policy we have suffered incalculable loss in man- 

 power owing to the thousands who have gone to foreign 



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