NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1476, 26 June 1912, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURE.

LECTURE BY THE PRIME MINISTER. Tire Hon. T. Mackenzie delivered a lecture at the Town Hall last evening in aid of the funds of the Boys' Institute The audience numbered about fifteen hundred, and included a number of Senior Cadets in uniform. Sir. J. Duthie, who presided, briefly outlined the objects for which the Institute had been established. Left to thcmseUcs, he remarked, boys were apt to spend their evenings on street corners, ami tho street iras not a good training ground for future citizen.?. The Institute, was rim on very broad lines, and aimed at assisting boys in their studies, and also at encouraging them to take up gymnastics and other forms of healthy athletic pursuits. The Prime Stinister had often shown his sympathy with tho Institute, and had done it onco again by consenting to lecture ..that evening. The Prime Minister tonic as hi* subject, "New Zenlnnd .Agriculture." He emphasised the fact that the importance of agriculture had been recognised in very early ages, and instanced the position accorded to it in China and Egypt thousands of years ago. As to more rncent times, the history of Home showed that in her most successful dnys her ucoplo occupied the soil, and that (he land was divided into reasonable areas. Everything went to show, Mr. Mackenzie remarked, that a country lacking a strong agricultural population was apt to fall into a condition bordering unon decay. New, Zealand had 1)7,000,000 acres of laiid of all descriptions. An area of -10,000.000 acres was in occupation, and 14,000.000 acres were under cultivation. When the country was first fettled, twenty-two prrsons claimed the whole of the' South' Island. The squatters who followed thce men played an important cart in developing the country. They endured many dangers and hardships, brought capital into the country, and gave a great impetus to the progress of colonisation. Mr. Mackenzie reviewed at soma leii»th tho progress of settlement in New Zealand, touching upon the treatment of refractory soils and predicting that sum lands, once looked lipun a> valiiele-s, would before long be turned lo profitable account in fruit-growing. Ito also described the efforts of the Government to train lads who intended to take up farming.- He commended Uf homiest of •MO.OOD by the late Sir John Campboll for tho purpose of endowing a Chair of Agriculture at Auckland Vniversity. (Applause.) After sketching (In; policy by which the Government oiulcniuiirod to assist primary producers in every possible way to turn their land to the best account.'Dr. Mackenzie quoted statistics showing that' production had increased with wonderful rapidity, particularly in the period following the inauguration of cold storage. At the close of the lecture, a number of lantern views, illustrating New Zealand agricultural pursuits, and indicating their rapid rise and progress, were thrown upon the screen. Following the?! , n number of kineiiiatugraph pictures of similar subjects wen." screened. The Inst pictures displayed weie very beautiful studies of rivers am! waterfalls, which, are looked upon as pnssiblo future source-, of hydro-electrical energy.

On the- motion nf tin- Hon. Dr. Collins, Mr. Mackenzie and I lie chairman wit accorded a dearly vole nf tlmiks. which «■;>.- siippleiiirnii'd liv clitt-. Purina II"' evening. Mr. <"'. V. Mobr Fan? a polo, nnd «? rm.w/1. Mr, i. ft. Auisden acted as acconipanisU