10 



TASMANIAN SCHOOL OF 



scholars from that date up to 1900 will be seen from the 

 following statement : — 



Numher of Scholars attending. 



Pei'iod. 



1861-1865. 

 1866-1870. 

 1871-1875. 

 1876-1880. 

 1881-1885. 

 1886-1890. 

 1891-1895. 

 1896-1900. 

 1901. . 



Now this return of 40 years' progress, in cycles of five years 

 each, is valuable and instructive as a forecast of what may 

 happen, proportionately, to your School of Forestry and 

 Agriculture, once it is established. 



I would just call your attention to a few facts which I 

 think may be gathered from it, and I feel certain that our 

 good friend R. M. Johnston (who finds sermons in stones 

 and figures in everything), can find many more if he 

 examines the statement. 



The first fact which strikes me is the small niimber of 

 pupils belonging to the country in which this school is 

 situated, who attended it during the first 10 years of its 

 existence; viz. :— 1860 to 1865,110; and 1866 to 1870,106; 

 or an average of only 21 per annum. It is the confirmation 

 of the old adage, " No man is a prophet in his own country," 

 and which, in this case, might be freely translated " Any- 

 thing got up at home is of no good." Similar remarks have, 

 if I remember rightly, been made not 100 miles from Hobart. 



The second fact is that, whereas in the first five years 

 only 57 strangers attended, or, about 11 per annum, within 

 the next 10 years their number was tripled. They were not 

 so long in finding out the value of the school as those at 

 home, for whom it was actually founded. 



The third fact: after 10 years' hesitation, no sooner do the 

 latter see that their own institution is certainly appreciated 

 by strangers, if not by themselves, than they begin to think 

 that there may after all be some good in it, with the result, 

 that during the next five cycles their numbers are more 

 than quadrupled. 



Fourth fact : of the adult agriculturists who were per- 

 mitted to attend the classes at a nominal fee (about £2 per 



