Maskell. — Oil a Department of Agriculture. G27 



Two things ouglit to be very earnestly borne in mind in 

 considering this question. One (noticed above) is that the 

 department required must deal not only with farmers, but 

 with all sorts of persons interested in all sorts of cultivation : 

 it results from this that a mere "practical farmer" would 

 be entirely insufficient to direct it. Independently of the 

 general disinclination of the "practical farmer" to look an 

 inch beyond his nose, a much wider and deeper knowledge is 

 necessary than he is at all likely to possess. Secondly, the 

 department must deal with every kind of friend or foe to 

 cultivation. Animal foes, such as insects, are not always 

 more destructive than vegetable foes, such as the various 

 fungi or noxious weeds. Consequently, the department, if 

 not the officer in charge of it, must be two-sided. In New 

 South Wales and in Victoria and in the United States the 

 various Boards include separate staffs of entomologists and 

 botanists. It is, of course, difficult for any Minister in New 

 Zealand to pluck up courage enough to tell Parliament that 

 two salaried officers are wanted. But he might, at least, 

 start with one ; and the author, in a letter sent lately to 

 the Minister of Lands, strongly urged that in England an 

 officer could be obtained competent to at least make a good 

 start with a department, and sufficiently expert in economic 

 entomology and in economic botany. The suggestion made 

 in the letter was that, say, the Royal Agricultural College 

 at Cirencester should be applied to, or Professor Wallace, of 

 the Edinburgh University, to recommend such an officer. 



Complaints are sometimes made that the subjects treated 

 of at meetings of the Society are not sufficiently practical. 

 Well, here, at least, is a practical question demanding a prac- 

 tical solution. Whether the solution would be given by the 

 Government and the Parliament might or might not be likely : 

 at all events, it was good to put on record the opinions just 

 expressed ; and the speaker trusted that the Society would 

 indorse them by passing the resolution which he proposed, if 

 his views were considered to be correct, to move — namely, 

 " That, in the opinion of this Society, the establishment of a 

 fully - equipped expert Agricultural Department is urgently 

 required in New Zealand." 



