PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



THE PRESIDENTS INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



At the general meeting of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial 

 Society held on the 27th January. 1914, the late Sir T. Crossley 

 Rayner, Chief Justice, delivered his address as President. He said 

 he found there was in the public mind a good deal of misconception 

 as to what the functions of the Society were. The name of the 

 Society was perhaps in some way slightly a stumbling-block to its 

 prosperity. People seemed to think that the object of the Society 

 had ceased to exist now that they had the Chamber of Commerce 

 and the Board of Agriculture, these two bodies being considered by 

 them as better able to carry out the functions which the Society 

 formerly exercised than was the case now. He ventured to think 

 that that was an entirely wrong idea and quite a misconception of the 

 functions of the Society and of the ideas of those who many years 

 ago brought it into existence. Both the Chamber of Commerce and the 

 Board of Agriculture were very necessary and very important bodies, 

 but they were bodies constituted of experts. The Chamber of 

 Commerce consisted of the leading merchants ; the Board of Agriculture 

 was a statutory body created under an Ordinance, and transferred to it 

 were certain functions which used to be exercised by the Governor-in- 

 Council. These two bodies were therefore bodies of experts dealing 

 with the commerce of the colony on the one hand and agriculture on the 

 other, and they were bodies to which the general public had no access. 

 A great many persons interested in the commerce of the colony could 

 not possibly be in the Chamber of Commerce, and in the same way it 

 was quite impossible for them to be appointed members of the Board of 

 Agriculture. But there were lots of people who were neither experts in 

 agriculture nor commerce who nevertheless took a real interest in the 

 welfare of the colony and would be very glad indeed to have some 

 opportunity of showing that interest and doing what they could to 

 develop the colony and to push forward its interests, and it appeared to 

 him that this Society above all other organizations in the colony was the 

 medium by which the general public who were not experts in any parti- 

 cular branch could do that. They could combine together and in various 

 ways advance the interests of the colony. Their function really was to 

 give information, to educate public opinion, and arouse interest in the 

 various questions which from time to time came before them for the 

 advancement and welfare of the colony. For a body like the Chamber 

 of Commerce or the Board of Agriculture it would be impossible to 

 organise meetings, give information and arouse enthusiasm:, but these 

 and the creation of a sound public opinion on the various questions were 

 essentially functions of the Society. 



