1919.] BE-OBGANIZATION—DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE. 221 



25. To permit of the amalgamation of the staffs of the Department 

 and Board it is, however, necessary that the Board should cease to be 

 an executive body with a technical staff under its direct control. 

 I propose that it should become an advisorv and consultative body similar 

 to the Boards of Agriculture in other Colonies. This change of status 

 would be more apparent than real ; for under existing conditions the 

 executive work of the Board is practically in the hands of its Secretary 

 and Chief Executive Officer who has to act on his own initiative or 

 in consultation with the Chairman, the Governor, in regard to all 

 matters in which immediate action is required, and to count upon 

 obtaining the sanction of the Board at its next monthly meeting. 



As mentioned in paragraph 3 of this despatch, when he drew up a 

 scheme for the establishment of a Department of Agriculture, the 

 original intention of Sir Henry Jackson was that the Board of Agricul- 

 ture should be an advisory body ; and experience of the past nine years 

 tends to show that the departure from his scheme has not tended to 

 efficiency. As has been explained above, the expenses of the Board of 

 Agriculture are defrayed from an export tax on agricultural produce 

 which was imposed on the suggestion of the members of the Agricultural 

 Society. By reason of this self-imposed taxation the members of the 

 Board have attached great importance to the retention of complete 

 control over the expenditure of their funds : and so long as the Board is 

 financed by means of this special agricultural tax, the members of the 

 Board will probably be reluctant to smrrender to Government the control 

 over their expenditure. 



ABOLITION OF AGRICULTURAL TAX. 



26. In view of the fact that agriculture is the staple industry of the 

 Colony on which the prosperity of practically every section of the 

 population either directly or indirectly depends, it does not seem 

 inequitable that the whole cost of the Department of Agriculture should 

 be thrown upon the general revenue of the Colony. A complement to the 

 proposal that the staff of the Board of Agriculture should be absorbed 

 in that of the Department, must therefore be that the special agricul- 

 tural tax should be abolished, and that the whole cost of the Department 

 of Agriculture should be a charge against general revenue. 



STAFF OF DEPARTMENT. 



27. The Superior Staff of the Department now consists of the 

 Director, who up to the present time has also been Government Analyst 

 and Agricultural Chemist, and the Assistant Director, who is also 

 Government Botanist and Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens. 

 The Superior Staff of the Board of Agriculture includes a Mycologist 

 and Entomologist. 



In consequence of the retention of the office of Government Analyst 

 by Professor Carmody on his appointment to the post of Director of 

 Agriculture, the whole of the analytical work connected with police, 

 public health and customs matters has remained nominally under the 

 Director of Agriculture. This arrangement is unsatisfactory and it is 

 desirable that it should be determined. I propose that the work of 



