352 Timehri 



Large Sphere of Operations. 



Now although the uame of the Society was Agricultural and 

 Commercial, yet he took it that they were not limited to those two 

 subjects. They were not to consider their functions in any narrow spirit 

 and say everything but agriculture and commerce were outside the 

 sphere of their operations. His view was that the Society should take 

 within its purview any thing which would benfit the colony and promote 

 its welfare. All wealth came from the soil and commerce was the means 

 of dealing with and diffusing the products from the soil, so that even if 

 they took a narrow view and limited it to commerce and agriculture 

 their sphere of operations would not be much affected. One thing they 

 had done and would continue to do was to organise from time to time 

 lectures by gentlemen who were experts in particular subjects, so that 

 they could take a proper line in dealing with questions which came 

 before them. He had heard it said that the Society was nothing but a 

 library and reading room, and he was told that only a day or two ago. 

 While admitting that they had an excellent reading room and an excel- 

 lent library, the latter with upwards of 30,000 volumes, Sir Crossley 

 claimed that that was only one part of the Society's operations. The 

 Society had not got anything like the support it was entitled to, and on 

 that question Mr. Garnett was going to open a discussion, to which he 

 hoped would be contributed the views of a number of those present so 

 as to show in what respects the governing body had failed in the past to 

 make the Society popular and to point out what they ought to do. He 

 urged it was the duty of all colonists to join the Society and give it their 

 support. There was no other organization in the colony which had for 

 its object the purposes of this Society, and there was no organization 

 either which could in the same way inform public opinion and assist in 

 the progress of the colony. 



For a moment or two he wished to refer to two subjects 

 which were becoming very prominent, upon each of which it was neces- 

 sary that they should have right views, and in which also 

 this Society ought to take an interest and to take part in the dis- 

 cussion of them and try to guide public opinion in the right way. First 

 they had been discussing for a very long time the railway to the interior, 

 and if there was one thing more thou another connected with agriculture 

 and commerce it was this railway. Different views had been expressed 

 on the question and it had been very much criticised ; but if he were any 

 judge at all of public feeling it seemed to him that public opinion now was 

 almost unanimous that they must have a railway and that without a rail- 

 way they could not to any satisfactory extent develop the resources of 

 the colony. That was his own opinion and he confessed he could not see 

 how this colony was to progress and become the great colony, which they 

 hoped it would become, without a railway to develop its resources. But 

 there was another point which they must not lose sight of as inseparable 

 from it. That was the question of cost, and that, he took it, was the 

 only question, because as soon as it was established that they could 

 construct a railway from the coast-line to the interior of the colony and 



