PRESIDEXT'.S .iDDRESS. 23 



fliat the land needs a periodical rest or sweetening; that it is the dry climate and 

 (he high-class uutritixe native grasses and herbage, wiiieh are largely responsible 

 for the excellence of Australian wools; that if every season were a good one, the 

 stock and sheep would suffer severely from parasites, and from diseases; and, 

 best of all, men who do not believe that Nature's great scheme of tilings, which, 

 by flow degrees, has evolved from the womb of Time, has arrived at its present 

 advanced state of development, for the sole and only purpose of gratifying the 

 money-making instincts of the Get-rich-quick Dollarton Shekelf ords, just as and 

 how they would like to be able to order it. Records of the actual experience of 

 intelligent and enlightened men of this kind, are among tlie things wanted ; and 

 some of it is already on record in the files of old newspapers. They are men 

 who can appreciate the words of Mr. Roosevelt, when President of the United 

 States, in his opening Address to the American Forest Congress, held at Washing- 

 ton, January, 1905 — "All of you know that there is opportunity in any new 

 country for the development of the type of temporary inhabitant whose idea is 

 to skin the country and go somewhere else. . . . That man is a curse and 

 nut a l)lessing to the country. The prop of the country must be the business 

 man who intends so to run his business that it will be profitable to his children 

 after him. ... I ask, with all the intensity I am capable of, that the men 

 of the West will remember the sharji distinction 1 have just drawn between the 

 man who skins flie land, and the man who develops the country." 



Tile book should not be a one-man book, but a team-work book, supervised 

 by a capable editor. It should lie simply but scientifically written by specialists 

 in the different branches, after the manner of the Handbooks ])repared, at dif- 

 ferent times, for the Meetings of the Australasian and of the British Associa- 

 tions for the Advancement of Scienece. But, for the chapters to which they 

 relate, and especially those on the lessons of droughts and their application, from 

 the practical man's side, the files of tlie newspapers, at least as far back as 

 the drought which began in 1888, should he systematically looked up. Some of 

 the articles therein are excellent, for they are often the records of actual experi- 

 ence and first-hand knowledge; and, as such, they are of historical interest. The 

 cream of all these should be skimmed, sup]ilemented as may be required, and 

 put into the Handliook; and, if desirable, referred to in the Bibliography. Papers 

 in scientific journals should lie utilised in a similar manner. 



But the pnblicati(m of a Handbook, in the way of pro])aganda, is not 

 enough . Tlie annual output of books is so enonnous, that any particular book is 

 apt to lie ]iut on the shelf, and perhaps forgotten. Therefore some propagandists 

 are needed . A good way of providing for these, I think, would be the endow- 

 ment of a course of three annual lectures. One lecturer always to be a scientific 

 man; another always to be a man on the land; and the third always to be a 

 business man callable of dealing with the statistical and financial aspects of 

 drouglit-probleras. The lecturers to be appointed annually, a year in advance, 

 so that they may have time for the preparation of their lectures. The lecturers 

 to be allowed to choose the subjects of their lectures, provided — and this is to tie 

 a sine qua )ion — that the aim and object thereof is to elaborate, to expound, to 

 make clear, and, if possible or necessary, to amplify tlie Handbook. The lec- 

 tures sometimes to be delivered in Sydney when the primary jiroducers come to 

 hold their annual Congresses; and, sometimes in one or other of the centrally 

 situated and accessible country towns, as may be decided . In this way, attention 

 would periodically be focussed on the Handliook, and on tlie subject with which 



