DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. Etc., FOR IRELAND. 273 



circumstances created in Ireland by the Local Government Act, which the 

 same Minister had carried through Parliament the previous Session. A 

 brief outline of the varied duties and functions of this new State Depart- 

 ment is given here — though it must necessarily be of a very summary char- 

 acter. One side of the duty of the Department is to carry on certain 

 veterinary, fisnery, statistical, and educational work, which was, at the time 

 of the passing of the Act, divided up amongst some half-dozen State depart- 

 ments, but a large share of its duties is almost entirely new, so far as State 

 action is concerned, and is connected with the development of " Agriculture 

 and other Industries and Technical Instruction," words which receive a very 

 liberal interpretation in the definition clause. Towards carrying out this 

 work, the Department received a capital sum of about ^^200,000, and has an 

 annual endowment of i^ 166,000. The salaries and allowances of the staff 

 required for the work of the Department, including the transferred duties, 

 are voted by Parliament and included in the ordinary Civil Service Esti- 

 mates. The Department consists of a President (the Chief Secretary for 

 the time being) and a Vice-President, who are assisted by a Secretary, two 

 Assistant Secretaries, one in respect of Agriculture and one in respect of 

 Technical Instruction, together with a number of " Inspectors, Instructors, 

 Officers, and Servants." 



The very nature of the work which the new Department was called into 

 existence to accomplish made it absolutely essential that the Department 

 should keep in touch with the public opinion of the classes whom its work 

 would concern, and without whose active co-operation no lasting good 

 could be effected. The machinery for this purpose was provided by the 

 establishment of a Council of Agriculture and two Boards, one connected 

 with Agriculture and the other with Technical Instruction. These 

 representative bodies, whose constitution is interesting as marking a new 

 departure in the administrative system of the United Kingdom, were 

 adapted from Continental models. As the Vice-President said m his 

 opening address at the inaugural meeting of the Council last year : — 

 " Similar Councils, to advise and influence similar Departments, have been 

 found by experience in the Continental countries, who are Ireland's econo- 

 mic rivals, to be the most valuable of all means whereby the administration 

 keeps in touch with the opinions of the agricultural and industrial classes, 

 and becomes truly responsive to their needs and wishes." 



The Council of Agriculture is mainly elective, and is built out of the 

 newl)^-established system of Local Government. It consists of 104 mem- 

 bers, of whom 68 are elected by the County Councils, and 34 are nominated 

 by the Department. The President and Vice-President of the Department 

 ajre ex-ojficio members of the Council and of both Boards. The members of 

 the Council are elected for a term of three years, and according to the Act, 

 'Shall meet at least once a year for the purpose of discussing matters of 

 public interest in connection with any of the purposes of this Act." 



Where the Council differs from its foreign prototypes is, mainly, in the 

 greater amount of direct power which has been entrusted to it. Besides its 

 advisory powers — and the importance to be attached to the deliberate 

 opinion of such a representative body is naturally very great — the Council 

 itself creates the larger portion of the Agricultural Board, and shares with 

 the County Boroughs the appointment of the majority of members of the 

 Board of Technical Instruction, and to these Boards is entrusted the control 

 of the funds with which the Department has been endowed. The two 



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