viii PREFATORY NOTE 



Secretary, Mr. J. Nugent Harris, to the new Board of Gover- 

 nors of the reconstituted Agricultural Organisation Society 

 on the occasion of their first meeting, on October 9th, 1912, 

 after the reconstitution ; but various matters of detail which 

 would not interest the general reader, together with refer- 

 ences to certain new schemes or proposals still to be matured, 

 have been omitted, while a new chapter on " The Movement 

 in Ireland," and, also, one giving " Summary and Con- 

 clusions," have been added. 



My own interest in the problems thus dealt with dates back 

 to the year 1892, when, on the occasion of the National 

 Agricultural Conference referred to on pp. 89 92 (a 

 gathering which could only suggest for the resuscitation of 

 depressed agriculture such remedies as Protection, Bime- 

 talism, reduced taxation, changes in the land laws and the 

 formation of a Parliamentary Agricultural Party) I con- 

 tributed to The Times of December 6th and 7th, 1892, two 

 articles on " Australasian Produce in English Markets," 

 in which I gave details as to what was then being done 

 by Australia and New Zealand in the way of organising 

 their agricultural industries on such lines as would allow 

 of greatly increased food supplies being sent here under the 

 best and most remunerative conditions. On December 

 26th, 1895, I contributed to the same paper an article on 

 " Colonial Governments and Colonial Trade," giving the 

 later developments in respect to agriculture in New South 

 Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, 

 and New Zealand, with an account, also, of what was being 

 done in Canada. Inspired by the announcement that Mr. 

 Chamberlain, then Secretary for the Colonies, had addressed 

 a letter to the Colonial Premiers asking for information on the 

 matters here in question, this article anticipated by about 

 eighteen months the Blue Book subsequently published on 

 the subject. 



In this same year (1895) it was my privilege to be in touch 



