DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Etc., FOR IRELAND. 285 



happens that, from the Science and Art Institutions in Dublin down to the 

 secondary school in a little semi-rural town in the provinces, the agricultural 

 and the industrial features of technical instruction are continuously interwoven, 

 and must be considered with a common thought for both. Similarly with 

 regard to the action of the Department in matters other than educational. In 

 the stimulation of local industrial enterprise in town and country ; in the exten- 

 sion of rural industries supplementary to agriculture ; in the supervision of the 

 conditions under which cattle, and agricultural and industrial produce are 

 carried by the public companies ; in the administration of the laws for guarding 

 the interests of such produce in the markets ; in the dissemination of informa- 

 tion ; in scientific and other inquiries and researches — in all these purposes the 

 same general idea must be constantly operative. It is found to be not less 

 necessary where different industrial interests sometimes clash, and where, 

 without effective co-ordination, one interest might be pursued by its own 

 partisans or its own experts unduly at the expense of another. Thus the 

 Department during the year has been obliged to safeguard before Parliamen- 

 tary Committees the interests of the inland fisheries as against promoters of 

 enterprises for the use of water power and the generation of electricity, and to 

 do this safeguarding in such a manner that these enterprises should find no 

 obstacle to their introduction into Ireland but those which may belong to the 

 commercial and other difficulties naturally inherent in them. 



The organisation of the Department has been devised with a view to giving 

 effect to this administrative principle. The different sections of its work have 

 been allotted to a number of separate Branches, and each Branch is manned by a 

 specially qualified staff, and has at its head an Assistant Secretary or Head of 

 Branch, who is a highly trained expert or administrative officer. Each Branch 

 is thus in a position to concentrate its entire energy and expert skill upon its 

 special task, as if it were a distinct department in itself, while at the same time 

 its work is brought into harmony with the general purpose of the Act, and 

 gains from having behind it the resources of the whole Department. The 

 machinery for general direction and co-ordination of the work of the Branches 

 is provided in the offices of the Vice-President and of the Permanent Secretary. 



The clerical work of the Department, and certain administrative work is 

 placed under the general supervision of the Chief Clerk, while its financial 

 work is entrusted to a Clerk in Charge of Accounts. 



The Branches amongst which the Department has so far divided its work 

 are the following : — 



I. Agricultural Branch. 

 II. Technical Instruction Branch. 



III. Fisheries Branch. 



IV. Statistics and Intelligence Branch. 

 V. Veterinary Branch. 



VI. Accounts Branch. 



Other Branches will be formed as the organisation of the Department 

 proceeds. 



The value of guiding its action by the advice of the best-qualified of those 

 who are directly concerned in the business to which that work relates, is fully 

 recognised by the Department. They have, accordingly, as it seemed 

 advisable, appointed Special Advisory Committees of Experts, and invited 

 conferences of representatives of the classes concerned. Thus Special 

 Committees on Live Stock, on Horse Breeding, and on Flax, have been 

 appointed in connection with the Agricultural Branch, and a special Committee 

 on Fisheries has been associated with the Fisheries Branch. 



