262 AUSTRALASIA 



supplemented by itinerant professors and in- 

 structors, who went about among the farmers, 

 or otherwise assured to them skilled advice in 

 the various branches of their undertakings. 

 These, again, were supplemented in some of 

 the Colonies by substantial bonuses, and by a 

 system of official inspection of produce intended 

 for export. 



But in Australasia, as in most of the European 

 countries of which I have already spoken, it was 

 found that the opening up of more markets, and 

 the teaching of better methods of production, 

 required to be supplemented by giving to the 

 cultivators greater facilities for raising capital, by 

 means of loans, for the carrying on of their agri- 

 cultural operations. Here, again, there are differ- 

 ences in the conditions in Europe and Australasia 

 respectively, for though the Australian squatter 

 may be in a better financial position generally 

 than the average peasant in Continental Europe, 

 he is liable to visitations of drought, unknown 

 in the Old World, which in a single season may 

 deprive him of years of effort, and leave him to 

 begin his work all over again. Added, therefore, 

 to the general considerations which apply to the 

 Colonial equally with the European farmer, there 

 were special reasons why an easy agricultural 

 credit should be brought within the reach of 



