NATURE 



361 



THURSDAY MARCH 11, 1875 



AGRICULTURE IN VICTORIA 



Department of Lands and Agriculture, Victoria. Second 

 Annual Report of the Secretary for Agriculture. (Mel- 

 bourne : Published by authority. John Ferres, Govern- 

 ment Printer, 1874.) 

 THE Government of the flourishing colony of Victoria 

 has hf.d in active operation, for two years, a Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, the history, constitution, and working 

 of which may be discussed with advantage at a time when 

 it is proposed, in many quarters, to establish a somewhat 

 similar department in the mother country. 



The work done by the Victorian Department for 1 8 73 

 is detailed in the Report sent to us by the Secretary. The 

 origin of the Department is given in the Introduction to 

 the First Report, which we happen to possess, and from 

 which we learn that the Port Phillip Agricultural Society 

 was instrumental in inducing the Legislature of the day 

 to pass the Act, 22nd Victoria, No. 83, which established 

 and endowed a Board of Agriculture for the colony. It 

 would appear that the Board spent all its funds in making 

 grants to local Agricultural Societies ; and thus failed, as 

 might have been expected, to produce results commen- 

 surate with the grant. This failure induced a number of 

 thoughtful men to urge on the Government the propriety 

 of establishing an independent department for promoting 

 the agricultural interests. The executive received the 

 matter favourably ; and appointed, on the 19th of June, 

 1872, the Hon. J. J. Casey first Minister of Agriculture. 

 It became necessary to appoint a permanent executive 

 officer as head of the Department, and the course adopted 

 for securing the services of such an officer was novel. It 

 was called a competitive examination, but the competi- 

 tion was confined to an essay on the means of promoting 

 the object. The examiners unanimously selected as the 

 best the essay written by Mr. A. R. Wallis, who was at 

 once appointed. Mr. Wallis holds the diploma of the 

 Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester ; and, fortunately 

 for the colony, possesses essential qualities, such, eg., as 

 energy, which could not be tested by the writing of an 

 essay. The paper which secured the appointment for Mr. 

 Wallis is pubhshed in the First Annual Report of the 

 Department, and is the production of a thoughtful mind. 



The first " Report " was made up chiefly of papers 

 supplied by the Secretary himself. He had to discuss 

 vine-culture, vine-disease, and other subjects which were 

 new to him. On the whole, however, the volume was 

 a respectable production. 



In the Report for 1874 he was able to obtain papers on 

 various agricultural subjects from the most competent 

 men in the colony. The volume begins with the general 

 report by the Secretary himself, which is followed by a 

 report from the pen of the recently appointed chemist, 

 Mr. W. E. Ivey, and a report on the state forests appa- 

 rently written by the same Mr. Ivey. In addition to 

 these reports the volume contains a great many original 

 papers on important subjects. On the whole, the volume 

 is creditable to the Secretary, on whom the direction of 

 the Department devolves. He is a young man, Every- 

 VoL. xr.— No. 280 



thing was new to him in his adopted country. He had to 

 deal with subjects which he could not by any possibiHty 

 have mastered at the time he entered on his duties. 

 Viewing his labours in the light of this fact, they give 

 promise of a useful career. The recent scientific training 

 which Mr. Wallis received at Cirencester must have 

 aided him in overcoming many difficulties. He would do 

 well to exercise great caution. We would advise him, 

 and all those who break new ground, to avoid disquisi- 

 tions or discussions on subjects with which they are not 

 thoroughly conversant. We find an instance in the 

 Report for 1874. In suggesting the propriety of insti- 

 tuting an agricultural survey of Victoria, a thing in 

 itself most useful, the Secretary writes a rank heresy in 

 political economy. " It seems to me," he says, " a mon- 

 strous thing that a man who, by the combined application 

 of industry, capital, and intelligence, has converted a 

 barren schistose hill into a well-managed and productive 

 vineyard, should be subject to a higher assessment than 

 the person who owns or occupies the adjacent lands of 

 equal natural fertility, or than one who owns a vast extent 

 of the most naturally productive lands of the colony, 

 because such lands are devoted to none other than 

 pastoral purposes." 



In writing this passage Mr. WalHs overlooked an ele- 

 mentary principle of taxation, namely, that as one of the 

 objects of taxation is to create a fund for the protection of 

 property, men should pay this tax in proportion to their 

 property or ability to pay. A well-managed and produc- 

 tive vineyard would be a source of loss to its owner if 

 every dishonest man living in the colony of Victoria were 

 allowed to seize the crop. It is unnecessary to waste 

 time in elucidating so simple a matter. The wonder is, 

 how a man of Mr. Wallis's intelligence and position 

 could have entertained and expressed a view which is at 

 variance alike with the elements of economic science and 

 common sense. We fully believe the passage was written 

 hurriedly and without thought. The subject was of the 

 most incidental character ; and there is a very general 

 tendency to deal in an "offhand" manner with topics 

 which arise in this way. The Secretary passes in review 

 the leading crops and interests with which his depart- 

 ment is concerned. We are sorry to learn that the experi- 

 ments made with flax in various parts of the colony have 

 not been satisfactory. The vine crop of 1874 was good, 

 and it was comparatively free from disease. Fruit cul- 

 ture, entomology and meteorology, and a great many 

 other subjects, are briefly noticed. The topic which 

 appears to interest the Secretary most is agricultural 

 education, which is treated at considerable length in a 

 paper distinct from the Report. " It is high time," he 

 says, "now that the Church, the Law, and the Sword 

 have their Colleges supported by the State, that the Plough 

 should have hers." And he urges that " it is as much a 

 matter of national poUcy to teach the people how to feed 

 men scientifically as to kill them." His paper on agricul- 

 tural education is most interesting. Of his own Alma 

 Mater, Cirencester, he speaks more reservedly than we 

 could expect. His success, which we sincerely and ardently 

 wish, will do more for Cirencester than mere words of 

 praise. He describes its arrangements briefly and cor- 

 rectly. Of the Irish national system of agricultural educa- 

 tion he speaks in the warmest terms. Through its 



