The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 684, 2 November 1876, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice tt nl' men, Ol whaterer suite 01 peisuasion, lcligious or political # # # # # Here diall the Pierj tho Pbovlb's right maintftin. Unawed by influence mnd tinbribert by R»in.

TH UBS DAY NOVEMBER 2, 1876

Thr Cambridge Farmers Club, the annual commemoration of which was held on Tuesday, is au institution which is fast gaining strength in Waikato, and may be made, as the settlement of the district propreHseH, to effect an important influence on the agricultaval prosperity of the Waikato. Such olubs fill up a want which i" not provided for bv the agricultural associations springing up in most of the principal farming districts of this ' Province. The latter show what may be done by the farmer, either in the ruatter of producing crops 6r breeding cattle, but, they do not show hoY to do it, how, under altered circumstauceß,'deviations from old established rules of farming are desirable, or now methods altogether may be beneficially adopted. This is ju.st what a Farmers Club does. Men meet there 4-o give and receive information, to exchange ideas, and collate facts from certain communicated experiences for the better and more profitable carrying on of their

owd particular craft. And there is no pui->uifc more full of ir^steiies than fanninrr. None in which the i moio a. inaii lo.uus the muio lio Hilda ho h.is to le.irn. And, bv me ins of tho Vvot>% the benefits derived by tlitMhsm'Ssi m of such matters ma not confined to the members of tho club, but become the common property of nil interested in aijricultui.il pursuits. If a ich institutions are fonud necessary and useful in an old coiiutry, as at home, and such men us Mechi and Huxubo through them h.ivedonp much to advance funning to a science during the past five and thirty years*, how much more necessary are they in a new country such as this where so very large a pi'oportion of those who eater on the work of settlement are neither born nor bred to the plough. The forces of agriculture in New Zealand have heen largely mis-spent Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been uselessly expended, bringing nothing but disappointment to the oqtla-yer, and all for want of the special information which the careful and energetically directed efforts ot Farmers Clubs in various districts of the Province, working unitedly for their common benefit, and for that of the public at large, might have, to a very large extent,, provided. These sort of things are very much better managed in America, where the | eculiar circumstances of settlement — not dissimilar to those of this pait of New Zealand — have called a thoroughly organised system into development. Theie, as here, the population is scattered and sparse, and there, as here, the cultivators ot the soil are, in very many iustatices, unskilled and inexperienced in the occupation with which they have taken up later in life. There too, as here, they have not the large and wealthy body of landowners which, in Englaud, makes the advancement of agriculture its care and duty, woll knowing 1 , indeed, that with the prosperity of the farmer grows also- the value of their own large estates. America, as we have said, manages these things better, ' The State beooraes to the farmer there what t ie great landholder is to the British agriculturalist in such matters. The American G jverument, by the establishment of a Department of Agriculture, utilises these clubs and ass iciations, and the practical experience of each settler to the utmost. The department becomes the great centre for the collation and diffusion of all matters interesting to farmers, even to the extent of becoming a central corresponding office fur the transmission of information to all pavtsof the country, as soon as any new and uheful fact shall have been acquired aud proved. Recently, in the Assembly, it was' stated that, in consequence of the amount ot work entailed on Mmibters by Abolition, a now office would have to bo formed, and it was recommended thai; a Minister of Mines bu appointed. * Why not a Minister of Agriculture. Of the two industries the latter is by far tho most important, and the most general.