RELATED TOPICS 255 
of agriculture. There is also the greatest need for sound 
information on rural economics, and, in part, on social 
and economic questions generally. The discussions on 
these questions throughout the whole community show 
that a clear grasp of the principles involved is almost 
entirely lacking. 
There is an ever present tendency for the policy of 
such a Union to become narrow, and confined too much 
to class interests. This is quite a natural tendency, and 
is scarcely reprehensible, for such a Union can scarcely 
exist without a strong class bias. The Farmers’ Union, 
however, has special opportunities to rise above this. 
Connected as it is with the greatest of our industries, 
the very foundations of our national prosperity, it can 
exert an enormous influence throughout the whole 
community. Perhaps the most important task it has 
before it is to develop to a fuller extent genuine public 
spiritedness throughout the rural community. Greater 
toleration coupled with more self-reliance would be 
valuable assets to our farmers and to the people of the 
Dominion generally. 
3. Protection for the Wheat Industry. 
(a) Protection in New Zealand.—There are two 
reasons for discussing this problem. First, the subject 
is of the greatest interest to New Zealand. The fiscal 
policy which the Dominion adopts will re-act on her 
economic development, and is usually connected with 
her prosperity. Secondly, the War has brought the 
question before the public again in a new and somewhat 
misleading manner. The outery against German goods, 
the alleged attempted economic domination of Germany, 
the supposed superiority of protected countries, are all 
powerful arguments to the average man. At a time 
when popular sentiment on these matters is running 
high, the danger that ‘‘partial and incomplete reasoning 
