272 JOURNAL OF .SCIENCE. 



F.R.M.S. (Abstract). Mr. Maskell said that, because there was a 

 gentleman in the Cabinet with the title of Minister of Agriculture, and 

 under him a Department of Lands and a Department of Stock, most 

 people in the colony were under the impression that there is in New 

 Zealand a Department of Agriculture properly established. This 

 however was not the case, the titles mentioned being practically (except 

 perhaps for Stock) misnomers. In point of fact there is not at present 

 in the country any official and responsible machinery for investigating 

 the various enemies to cultivation and for informing and advising 

 cultivators thereon. Agriculture, he might say in passing, was not 

 necessarily farming : there are large numbers of persons engaged in, 

 or interested in, gardening, tree-growing, fruit-growing, floriculture, 

 cultivation of all sorts, who are not farmers, and this should be borne 

 in mind, as will be mentioned presently. Now, on the appearance of a 

 new enemy to the cultivator, of a new pest amongst crops or trees or 

 gardens, or even of a new friend or a new method of procedure, what 

 has to be done by the existing machinery? There is nobody in the 

 colony placed in an official and responsible position, and the so-called 

 Minister for Agriculture has to go outside his department and obtain 

 amateur advice. Take, for instance, the "Tauranga sheep disease "as 

 it is called : professors of different colleges are sent for to investigate it, 

 and that, is not a college professor's duty. Take the Hessian fly : an 

 official in the Post Office who happens to be an excellent entomologist, 

 is sent up to attend to it. Take the so-called " blights " : recourse is 

 had to an officer of the university ; and when a friendly beetle comes to 

 help men to fight these "blights," again the university officer is appealed 

 to. Tn such cases as the appearance of the horse bot-fly in Canterbury 

 and Auckland, or the fear of some fungus-pest injurious to apple 

 growers, there is no official responsible person to whom the colonists 

 can go for advice or help. It is not a question of ability or of desire to 

 be useful. All the persons just named have no doubt always been 

 glad to assist and would always be ready to give the Government and 

 the country their very best services : and undoubtedly the advice 

 tendered to them has been thoroughly honest and well-considered. But 

 it is essentially and necessarily amateur and irresponsible, and what is 

 wanted is the stamp of an expert official who can command rather than 

 deserve public confidence. It is no disparagement of the gentlemen 

 who have been hitherto called in as advisers to say that an expert 

 department would be far more satisfactory and produce better results. 



In other countries people have realised this fact, and have established 

 expert Agricultural Departments. In the United States there is the 

 Central Office at Washington, and besides that nearly every state of the 

 Union has its own. In England there is the Board of Agriculture with 

 a professional staff. In Australia, the three colonies of New South 

 Wales, Victoria and South Australia have expert Departments : so 

 has India. The speaker exhibited to the meeting specimens of the 

 periodical publications of some of these: the "Insect Life" of the 

 Washington Office, the " Agricultural Gazette " of the Sydney Board, 

 the "Indian Museum Notes" of Calcutta, the Reports of the State 

 Boards of New York, California, Nebraska, Iowa, and others. One 

 thing was specially noticeable about all these (which were issued at 



