Primary Industry.

The great interest that is being taken by the farmers in the special excursions arranged to enable them to travel as representatives of the farming community to various producing and manufacturing districts of New Zealand presents an opportunity for stating the case to the primary producers.

The fact that these excursions are run is tangible evidence of our desire to meet the farmers in the matter of railway passenger facilities with a view to increasing their opportunity of taking advantage of cheap travel on the railway. The remarkable success which is attending our efforts has shown that what we are doing for the farmers is being appreciated, and holding, as I firmly do, that the true test of our success is service as well as profit, this is a source of great satisfaction to us.

We desire to bring home to the farmers the fact that while the railway is helping, and continues to do what it can to help, the farming community to an advantageous use of the railway system of the country, there is a definite responsibility on the part of the farming community to give the railway such support as will make it a thriving institution and so put it in a position to cater more and more adequately for the needs of the people. Almost invariably the railways that have been built in this country (apart from those in the very early days when the system was being constructed between the main cities) have been page 11 for the direct benefit of the rural population. They (the rural people) have generally been the people who have agitated for the building of the railways.

There is, therefore, a definite responsibility on them to make the railways a success in fact, and so justify the statement of those who advocated their construction that they were a justifiable proposition. The railways are only worth the use that is made of them, and unless people use them our lines cannot possibly be a success from any point of view, financial or otherwise. Our outlook is not bounded by the financial return alone, although of course it is our object to do the best possible from this point of view—but we desire also to give a service to the public that will be satisfactory to them. It is largely on this second principle that the farmers' excursions are based.