The Daily News MONDAY, APRIL 18, 1904. THE COLONY'S RESOUCES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 88, 18 April 1904, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, APRIL 18, 1904. THE COLONY'S RESOUCES.

The President of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce made some interesting remarks in his address at the annual •meeting of that body the other day. Time after time attention has been drawn to the dilatory methods of the Agricultural Department, especially in the important matter of erecting experimental rtations in the interests of farmers and the ever increasing produce export

trade of the colony. According to tMc Times' report, Mr Nathan said

that in this colony there is ample scope for the display of energy in developing' the country's resources and promoting trade, ami to aid in this direction is the raison d'etre of the existence of a Chamber of Commerce. Tn looking round to eee where assistance can best be given, we note that in no department are the opportunities so great as In the Department of Agriculture. As was pointed out by Lord Ranfurlv quite recently, our mineral resources are but evanescent, while tho land will continue to be an ever fruitful source of wealth and a widening area for the employment of lnbiour. Much, no doub't, has been <lone by our Agricultural Department, considering the limited resources placed at the disposal of its officers, hut compared with what has boon done and is boing done in other countries we are hopelesslyJhchiml tho times. We have capable officers, but without adequate sums of money to assist them their efforts must continue to be feeble in grappling with the many nfcrricnltuva) prolvlems awaiting solution. We have lost several of our ln?st men in cons(Vi;uenco of the hampering conditions under which they have been called upon to work, and it is probable that the fcolony would I not have lost the services of Mr Kins'olla—whose return to us will bt> welcomed by all—had adequate appliances and mcfems been placed at his disposal. Year after year '"the department has formulated requests for funds to conduct experiments having for their oliject the promotion of the several brandies of agriculture and the consequent development of much latent wealth, but absorbed in questions of passing and subsidiary importance both Government and Parliament lmvc turned a deaf ear. In view of tho multifarious duties which engross tho attention of the Government, it may be worthy of consideration whether it would not he wise to entrust the county councils or agricultural societies, subject to control hy those who provide the funds, with the work of educating our farmers by means of scientific experiments in the best' and most up-tio-date methods of obtaining the highest results from thu soil. When one reads of the remarkable achievements of the experimental stations of the | United States, of which there are fifty-six, and the tender solicitude with which these institutions are regarded. one cannot fail to be astonished- that in a country like New Zealand, with its reputation for progress, such an important department of tho State should be so neglected. Tho Government of the United States so highly values its experimental st'ictfrons that it votes nearly a million dollars each year as supplementary to their maintenance, while the in .a sense are wholly independent of the National Government, each one following out the line of research best suited to the needs of its particular constituency. At the same time they articulate closely with the Department of Agriculture at Washington, and much cooperative work is carried ion between the -department and the stations. The experimental work ts necessarily of a'very varied character, involving amongst other things the testing of soils and their needs, inoculation of the soils, their adaptation to certain crops mid fruits, and their unfriendliness to others, the creation of a new wheat, corn and cotton, the protection of the farmer from fraud, the curing of disease in plant and animal, the suila.b.ilily of certain grasses for particular soils, the reclamation of vast stretches of arid land, the betterment of a strain of cattle, the restoration of an exhausted soil, etc. What such' experimental stations might do for the fanners of this colony, who for the most part are men ijuito imio- , cent of the first scientific principles l of their profession—drawn as they j are. lately from the towns, and having no traditional interest in the soil—can perhaps he imagined : their value in the production of wealth certainly cannot. Having briefly referred to the mailer, the importance of which cannot be over-stated if we desire to make our colonies strong and vigorous and to employ our people remuneratively, we can only express a hope that others will interest themselves in the subject, and that pressure will bo brought, to bear on the proper authorities to bring about a now era in the Agricultural Department of the State.