lO'il.] The Ac;KicrLTrRAL Council for England. 919 



eiice unless we can fulfil some really useful [)urpose, and the sole 

 question is whether this new Council of Agriculture for Knj^land. 

 and. of course, Wales too, will adequately cover the ground. If 

 the Meetings of this body are sufficiently frequent, and if they 

 are able to deal with all the administrative matters upon which 

 representatives of the new County Agricultural Committees will 

 natm'ally from time to time want to confer, I foi- my part shall 

 certainly not advocate the perpetuation of a body which will only 

 mean duplicating work and unnecessary overlapping. I might 

 mention that we are in negotiation with the County Councils 

 Association with a view to their possibly estabhshing an Agri- 

 cultural Committee similar to their Education Committee which 

 will be able to hold Meetings from time to time of representatives 

 of the new County x\gricultural Committees to consider purely 

 administrative matters. So long as this body is prepared to 

 consider administrative matters, w^ell and good. My only fear is 

 that it will find itself too large a body to enter into technical 

 details concerned solely with administration. All I want to leave 

 upon Lord Lee's mind is this : we do not want to perpetuate our 

 existence for a single day if w^e can fulfil no real, and useful 

 purpose. ' 



Mr. ROYCE : — My Lord, I should hke to second, if I may, 

 this vote of thanks to Lord Lee. I am sure Lord Bledisloe has 

 so very clearly stated the feeling of this Council with reference 

 to Lord Lee that any words from me cannot be useful, but I 

 would like to say, so far as my personal knowledge of Lord Lee 

 is concerned, in relation to agriculture I can re-echo every word 

 that has fallen from his Lordship's lips; and although there are 

 some people who do not quite L^gree with I^ord Ijee in some of his 

 views, as, for instance, the ploughing of grass land, I am sure 

 we are all united and are of one opinion in believing that he is 

 absolutely devoted to the interests of agriculture, and that if at 

 any time he is removed from the great position he now holds — 

 I suppose Governments are not eternal — I hope in the interests 

 of agriculture he will be succeeded bv someone equally interested 

 in and equally devoted to the interests of agriculture. 



LORD SELBORNE :— It has been moved and seconded that 

 this Agricultural Council for England passes a vote of thanks to 

 Lord Lee for his inaugural address. 



(The resolution was put to the Meeting and carried with 

 acclamation.) 



