XIV. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



an old land, is a serious form of national waste that 

 undoubtedly saps the strength of any country. Anything 

 that can be done by a Gov^ernment, that is by the com- 

 munity, to lighten that load and more quickly bring the 

 settler to obtaining a livelihood without such extremes 

 of wasteful toil, it is the imperative duty of that Govern- 

 ment to do, and it can be done without going to the other 

 extreme of sapping the individuality of the farmer. The 

 problem is obviously one which can be successfully financed. 

 The actual details of the methods by which the work should 

 be done would vary with circumstances, but would give by no 

 means impossible problems to a properly qualified agricul- 

 tural engineer. It is rather a notable fact and typical of 

 the state of our agricultural methods that although nearly 

 three-fourths ot our exports are of agricultural origin, 

 agricultural engineers are practically unknown in Queens- 

 land. 



There are other directions in agriculture in which 

 there is at present a great waste of energy and material, 

 such as the burning off of millions of feet of timber when 

 clearing, because no one can find a use for it. 



The waste of Forestry has been and still is, appall- 

 ing, but I can find no statistics available. 



Water, both rainfall and artesian, is mostly run to 

 wasce. 



Then there is the use of horse ploughs for large 

 areas where steam or petrol would be much less costly, 

 and similar primitive methods of working. I noticed 

 recently a statement by a Manitoba wheat farmer, that 

 the replacement of horses by a large petrol tractor for 

 ploughing and reaping had saved him £500 a year. Where 

 capital is not available to small farmers for the purchase 

 of such expensive engines, there is a good opening for 

 co-operation. 



Turning for a moment to the Mining Industry, we 

 find there a similar prodigality in wasting our mineral 

 wealth. The history of many mining companies is a 

 succession of managers, each of whom points out that his 

 predecessor knew nothing of his business, and straight- 

 way proceeds to demonstrate that he also does not know 

 how to solve the problems. And so we have the capital 

 which should have been applied to making the mine a 



