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Dominions; I, I take it, am appointed to speak to-day 

 on behalf of the Crown Colonies, most of which, as my 

 brother officers are aware, are situated in deplorably hot 

 and often deplorably damp localities which are 

 peculiarly suitable to agricultural production. And it 

 is because, in these climates, agricultural products are 

 evolved in such luxuriance, that to us who are associated 

 with the Crown Colonies in the tropical zone, agri- 

 culture has perhaps the greatest importance of all the 

 matters that come under our consideration. In the 

 Colony over which I have for the time being the honour 

 to preside, a very remarkable development has, as your 

 President has told you, recently taken place. During 

 the last year the Gold Coast Colony has produced con- 

 siderably more than one-fifth of the total cocoa crop of 

 the world. But what makes this so peculiarly remark- 

 able is that there is not at the present time a single cocoa 

 garden from one end of the Gold Coast to the other 

 which is owned or managed* by Europeans ; that that 

 great industry and that great development has been 

 from first to last in the hands of the natives themselves, 

 and up to the present time they have only received very 

 scant aid at the hands of the Government. During the 

 last few years an Agricultural Department has been 

 established in the Colony, and its officers have, with the 

 greatest zeal, visited all parts of the Gold Coast, and 

 have personally advised the natives in the cultivation of 

 their crops. But that is comparatively speaking an 

 entirely new development, and in many other countries 

 [ think it will be found that a similar experience has 

 been ordinary. That is to say, that the planter, be he 

 European or be he native, has in the first instance 

 initiated the industry, and it is only at a long distance 

 of time that the Government has come to his assistance 

 with scientific aid and advice. Now that is something 

 which, though it has happened in the past, we hope will 

 not be repeated in the future and it is for the purpose, 

 I take it, of marking out for ourselves a policy of devel- 

 opment in agricultural knowledge and instruction that 

 this great Congress has been called together to-day. 

 And, if I may say so, it could hardly have met in any 

 circumstances in an institution better suited for its 

 accommodation, or under a Presidency more fitting than 



