president's address — SECTION G. 165 



When that time has arrived I trust that we shall be so far 

 federated that there will be needed only one chair of agriculture 

 for all the Australian Colonies, to be established in connection 

 with the university which may be able to offer the greatest 

 facilities for the practical study of the sciences allied to agricul- 

 ture. In the meantime, let us fervently hope that the best possible 

 means may be devised of opening u]) the immense tracts of unused 

 lands suitable for agricultural settlement, of settling genuine farmers 

 on the soil, and of educating themselves and their children in such 

 a way as to fit them for the highest possibilities of their future 

 calling. If these great problems can be brought to a happy 

 solution, federated x\ustralia will soon be independent of the out- 

 side world for all her food supplies and economic products, and 

 we shall be exporters instead of importers of agricultural produce 

 to the value of millions. Men will invest their savings as readily 

 in agricultural land as in suburban allotments, and our monetary 

 institutions Avill advance money to improve farms, orchards, and 

 vineyards on terms as favorable as they now give to the builders 

 of city shops and warehouses. 



There will be room for our boys, who now can find so few 

 openings for their energies. We shall have towns where there are 

 now villages, and villages where there are now the solitary roadside 

 inns. As the population becomes denser throiiiih the holdings 

 becoming smaller we shall have better roads, better means of 

 communication, more opportunities of social intercourse, more 

 attractive surroundings for the young people to reconcile them to 

 the minor drawbacks of rural life. Our fathers have subdued the 

 wilderness, and made farms where it was thought but a few years 

 ago that no crops could he grown. Our sons must populate these 

 great inland plains, and make vineyards, orchards, and wheatfields, 

 where there are now only sheep runs, until we have a population 

 befitting the resources of this great continent, and enjoy the 

 advantages, pleasures, and comforts of the best agricultural dis- 

 tricts of the old land our fathers and many young Australians are 

 still proud to call " home." 



[f it be not sacrileiiious to quote poetry before the members of 

 this scientific association. I should wish that Australia may beget 

 an intelligent and independent yeomanry like that Avhich has done 

 so much for the stability, prosperity, and true greatness of our 

 fatherland, concluding with the apostrophe of Robert Burns to 

 his native land, substituting Australia for Scotia: — 

 Australia ! my dear, my native soil ! 



For whom my warmest wish to heaven is sent, 

 Lonf? may thy hardy sons of rustic toil 



Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content ; 

 And, oh I may Heaven their simple lives prevent 



From luxury's conta<i;ion, weak and vile ; 

 Then, howe'er crown and coronets he rent, 



A virtuous populace may rise the while. 



And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved isle. 



