CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



gent-rally speaking, reason and justice prevail in the public conscience 

 of this country. That being so, we have hope for the future of dairy- 

 ing. 



This is not the place to enter into details on this matter, or 

 numerous proois might easily be adduced in support of the foregoing 

 observations. A comparison, however, between the clearing lease 

 system that had obtained during the forties and fifties and the more 

 advanced systems of dairying under the Land Act of the late Sir 

 John Robertson of 1861, and our more modern system of closer 

 settlement must at all times form chapters of interesting reading 

 for those whose ambitions lead them towards any scheme which may 

 be propounded -for the betterment of the man on the land. 



In conclusion, 1 wish to quote a notable writer : " The means of 

 saving a nation, by delivering it from interested protectors, and of 

 securing her real independence, are to be found in great and generous 

 'deas deeply rooted in the people; in feelings engraved on their hearts 

 by the action of time, by the influence of powerful institutions, by an- 

 cient manners and customs; in tine, in the unity of good thought, which 

 makes a whole people as one man. Then the past is united with the 

 present, the present is connected with the future ; then arises in the 

 mind that enthusiasm which is the source of great deeds ; then are 

 found disinterestedness, energy, and constancy-; because ideas are 

 fixed and elevated, because hearts are great and generous." 



Let us, then, look towards the future of this great country, as the 

 same learned author puts it : " Do you not see Nature herself so 

 varied, so rich, so grand, lavish her treasures in disorder, hide her 

 inestimable precious stones and her most valuable veins of metal in 

 masses of tarth ? See how she presents huge chains oi mountains 

 inaccessible rocks, and fearful precipices, in contrast with her wide 

 and smiling plains. Do you not observe this apparent disorder, 

 this prodigality, in the micist of which numberless agents work, in 

 secret concert, to produce the admirable whole which enchants our 

 eyes and ravishes the lover of Nature ? So with society ; the facts 

 are dispersed, scattered here and there, frequently offering n3 ap- 

 parances of order or concert ; events succeed each other, act on each 

 ether, without the design being discovered ; men unite, separate, co- 

 operate, and contend, and nevertheless time, that indispensable agent 

 in the production of great works, goes on, and all is accomplished 

 according to the destinies marked out on the secrets of the Eternal. 7 ' 



317 



