The Press FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1935. Canterbury's Farewell

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21411, 1 March 1935, Page 12

The Press FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1935. Canterbury's Farewell

to Lord Bledisloe The addresses presented to their Excellencies, the Governor-General and Lady Bledisloe, yesterday, the speeches they heard, and the popular welcome which must also be a reluctant farewell cannot, Christchurch and Canterbury will hope, have conveyed to them any new sense of their place in the respect and affection of the province. It is secured, of course, by a full and grateful consciousness of those national services to which we shall take a later occasion to refer; but it is secured also, and specialised, though it could hardly be strengthened, by the particular obligations under which Lord Bledisloe at once began to put Canterbury and which he has steadily multiplied. They are not, indeed, all of the one kind. It would be impossible, for instance, to 'forget his interest in the early history of the province and his wise encouragement of the preservation and study of its memorials and records; horticultural societies owe much to him, with societies and 1 causes of endless variety. But it remains true that in Canterbury, as the seat of agriculture in New Zealand, Lord Bledisloe has found the ! widest scope for the helpful application of his knowledge of scientific farming. He has given the advice that he has given everywhere, upon the need to raise the quality of the farm product and to keep it uniformly high; but he has added to this specific advice and practical aid in one branch of farming after another. To take a few examples almost at random, Canterbury has seldom been better directed than, as it has been by his Excellency, to pay more attention to pigs and to their feeding and breeding. He has interested himself closely in the wheat industry and its researches, and helped to forward them. His knowledge of dairy and beef cattle has made him a valuable critic and adviser. The soil, tillage and fertilising and cropping, set Canterbury farmers problems in which his interest is that of an expert; and he has done more than any other man, within a few years, to persuade them that the research worker is their best ally. His contact with Lincoln College, the home of agricultural instruction and research in Canterbury and New Zealand, has been constant and helpful; and the annual award of the Bledisloe Medal is a reminder of it and a means of perpetuating his influence. To say much more would be easy and pleasant; but it is f efficient to illustrate his Excellency's benefits to the province without cataloguing them. They are large separately, very large in total, and such as no other man, set in his position, could have conferred in equal time or in twice as long a time. They will not be forgotten or lost.