626 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



the colony placed in an official and responsible position, and 

 the so-called Minister of Agriculture has to go outside his 

 department and obtain amateur advice. Take for instance 

 the " Tauranga sheep-disease," as it is called : professors of 

 different colleges are sent for, to investigate it ; and that is not 

 a college professor's duty. Take the Hessian fly : an official in 

 the Post Office, who happens to be an excellent entomologist, 

 is sent up to attend to it. Take the so-called "bhghts:" 

 recourse is had to an officer of the University ; and, when a 

 friendly beetle comes to help men to fight these " blights," 

 again the University officer is appealed to. In such cases as 

 the appearance of the horse bot-fly in Canterbury and Auck- 

 land, or the fear of some fungus-pest injurious to apple-growers, 

 there is no official responsible person to whom the_ colonists 

 can go for advice or help. It is not a question of ability or of 

 desire to be useful. All the persons just named have no doubt 

 always been glad to assist, and would always be ready to give 

 the Government and the country their very best services, and 

 undoubtedly the advice tendered by them has been thoroughly 

 honest and well considered, but it is essentially and neces- 

 sarily amateur and irresponsible, and what is wanted is the 

 stamp of an expert official who can command rather than 

 deserve public confidence. It is no disparagement of the 

 gentlemen who have been hitherto called in as advisers to say 

 that an expert department would be far more satisfactory, and 

 produce better results. 



In other countries people have realised this fact, and have 

 estabhshed expert Agricultural Departments. In the United 

 States there is the central office at Washington, and, besides 

 that, nearly every State of the Union has its own. In Eng- 

 land there is the Board of Agriculture, with a professional 

 staff. In Australia the three colonies of New South Wales, 

 Victoria, and South Austraha have expert departments : so 

 has India. The author exhibited to the meeting specimens 

 of the periodical publications of some of these— the "Insect 

 Life" of the Washington office; the Agricultural Gazette of 

 the Sydney Board; the " Indian Museum Notes" of Calcutta; 

 the Eeports of the State Boards of New York, California, 

 Nebraska, Iowa, and others. One thing was especially notice- 

 able about all these (which were issued at short intervals, 

 some monthly), and that was that they were specially adapted 

 to the circumstances of the country they appeared in. _ Now, 

 in New Zealand we have nothing, or almost nothing, of 

 the kind. The Government issued lately a httle pamphlet 

 about the Phylloxera and other vine-diseases : it is good 

 enough as far as it goes, but it is nothing more than a com- 

 pilation from facts known in other countries, and does not 

 specially apply to New Zealand. 



