22 
UNDEVELOPED SOURCES OF WEALTH. 
By JosrpH Harris, M.L.A. 
(19th May, 1893.) 
The paper I am now about to read to you is not of a sensational 
character ; it will simply deal with a few subjects which I think 
deserving of attention, and may prove to be of some value either - 
to yourselves or to others. The title of my paper may be given 
as “ Undeveloped Sources of Wealth.” LIadmit this to be a high- 
sounding and grandiloquent phrase, and may lead you to anticipate 
something much greater than will be realized by the time my 
_ paper is finished. 
I have not discovered a speedy way of wiping out our National 
Debt, nor an instant method of at once giving employment to the 
thousands of idle men now in Melbourne ; but I trust that what 
I say may have the effect of causing you and others to think how 
best we may add to the general wealth of the colony by growing 
those plants and trees, and manufacturing their products, which 
may be readily produced, and which at present we have to 
import from other places. The fact that pur School of Horticul-. 
ture is now full, that we have even more pupils than the Board 
originally intended taking, is a sign, I think, that our fellow 
colonists thoroughly recognise that it is absolutely necessary we 
should give more attention to the cultivation of the soil than we: 
have done. 
Owing partly to the fewness of our people as compared with 
older countries, to our distance from the great centres of popular 
tion, and to the comparative high price of labour, our manufac- 
turing industries have not been the universal success at one time 
anticipated, and on all hands it is recognised that to “‘ mother 
earth” we must chiefly look for our permanent prosperity. Not 
only in these colonies, but in England, America, and elsewhere, 
considerable attention has been given of late to horticulture and 
agriculture. ‘ 
Royal. commissions and select committees have been inquiring 
how best to increase fertility of the land and restore prosperity to 
the tillers of the soil. Many of the leading statesmen of the 
mother country’have taken a keen interest in this subject, such 
men as Gladstone, Lord Derby, Sir J. Lubbock, Jesse Collings, 
and Lord Sudely have spared time to devote to this matter. The 
latter gentleman a few years ago put his faith in horticulture into 
