582 
Sxq)plement to the '‘^Tropical Agriculturist” 
meeting of gentlemen — students more especially 
— some of them cognisant with agriculture, he 
knew nothing about it, but responsible as be 
was to some extent he supposed he must say a 
few words, but lie could assure them that they 
would be very lew. He was glad to hear from 
Mr. Drieberg’s leport that in spite of the paucity 
of numbers good work had characterised this 
last session of the year, and that good work had 
been attested liy the recent examination held, 
manifestly showed that the work had really been 
good. For his own part he had always regretted 
and still did regret that more interest in the Agri- 
cultural College was not shown by those who 
ought to be interested in it. It started with 
very good beginnings and numbers, and was 
supposed to axipeal to a special class of peoxjle, 
those who were more particularly intereHed in 
agriculture, es^jecially land owners and the like, 
and general promises of support were held out. 
Tnese promises had r,ot been fulfilled. He 
thought it was a ]pity. He believed that boys who 
had been sent from the College during the few 
years of its existence had sufliciently shown that 
they had learnt what they ought to learn at the 
College and canied this knowlekge out in practice. 
One special instance he learned the Chairman 
incidentally refer to during the prize distribution 
was the case of the Agricultural Instructor work- 
ing at Balangoda. His work he (the speaker) 
could sxreak from personal experience showed very 
ample and satisfactory results. If more students 
were sent to the College more could be done by 
the College. But if landowners failed to redeem 
their promise, or failed to perceive the utility 
of the College, numbers must fall off. Another 
point to which special attention might be di- 
rected was that there was too much of a general 
idea— merely a casual idea gained without any 
sufficient information at all— of criticising the 
College as very expen.nve, a College consisting 
of only a few boys, half a dozen or so, and not 
worthy of support- It was so easy to write 
generalities of this kind, so easy to write 
without sx)ecial knowledge. In the Superin- 
tendent’s Administration Report he referred to 
at least five schools carried on in these buildings 
— the Agricultural School, the Forestry School, the 
Training School, the Fractising School and the 
Veterinary Scliool and there was also Dairy Farm- 
ing. It seemed to him that- most fieople w^ere 
very hard to satisfy when they did not think that 
that represented a fair amount of work to be under- 
taken with a fair amount of success achieved. 
They must bear in mind that the school did not 
consist of half-a-dozen students. These were only 
one item in the mass. The school embraced other 
classes all of which were doing good work, so 
he was informed by those responsible for the 
work. If that was mrjre generally recognised 
there would he less captious criticism as to the 
usefulness and maintenance of the school in its 
present status. Mr. Drieberg mentioned the 
bright prospects that had been opened up recently 
by the newly-established Technical School. Un- 
doubtedly he thought that the Technical School 
had really a bright prospect before it, and he did 
not see why similar prospects should not in 
the hereafter extend to the various branches of 
this school as they became more widely known. 
[Fkb. 1 , 1898 . 
At any rate even admitting that the School of 
Agriculture is at pre.sent small in numbers, still it 
had been supiilemented bj’ the other schools w’hich 
he had mentioned to them ; notably the Veterinary 
School and School of Forestry, in which good 
work was being pursued. With regard to the 
Veterinary School two boys had been sent from 
the Colombo scliool to receive full instruction in 
the Veterinaiy College in Bombay. He was look- 
ing over the jiapers only a few days ago in 
regard to one boy rvho had since returned to the 
island. He found in the report of the Principal 
of tlie College at Bombay he spoke most hightly 
of the work of this student. One paragraph that 
specially struck him was that for his own part, 
in case the student failed to obtain employment 
under the (Tovernment of Ceylon he (the Principal) 
would be only too glad to enlist his services 
on behalf of the Government of India, (.\pplause,) 
This was as good a proof of what a boy was wmrth 
as they could want to have. Coming back to 
the School of .Vgriculture and the possibilities of 
usefulness that ought to attach to it, it was only 
last week that he received a letter from the 
Government Agent of the North-Central Province 
in which he expressed his wish to attach to all 
Government schools in the Province about an acre 
of land to be x>lanted with economic products, to 
be taken charge of by the head teacher of the 
school and also by the boys. Their interest and 
work were to be enlisted in the enterprise. It 
seemed to him to be a very good idea of utilising 
some of the agricultural students where they' 
could be utilised by appointing them to districts 
where Revenue Officers or those in charge took 
an interest in the practical W'ork that was being 
carried out. For his part he always thought 
that one of the chief agencies that led to the 
decrease in the Agricultural School was that there 
was not sufficiently direct influence or supervi- 
sion over the school. There wms a dual res- 
Ijousibility — the responsibility of the Department 
and the responsibility attached to the Revenue 
Officer. Neither of them were practical respon- 
sibilities, and so they to a certain extent became 
evanescent. In the case of such gardens he wrote 
to the Government Agent pointing out that 
many economical foods could be cultivated in 
districts where they were now neglected, by their 
treating such simple foods as yams, sweet potatoes 
and more especially betel. lie had been amazed 
to find that the bulk of the betel sent upcountry 
was grown in villages a few miles Irom Colombo. 
Large su^rplies were sent dayby day, and with the 
excei)tion of a few idacos he had seen the supply 
of betel was mostly obtained for the higher 
districts from these two or three low-country 
districts. He believed the betel vine was capable 
of cultivatiou, if not in the higher altitudes at 
least in the lower ones, and seeing that betel 
was not a luxury but a necessity, it should be en- 
couraged. (Axiplause.) He understood the Mayor 
was going to make an elaborate speech on sanita- 
tion, and he would not keep them further from 
the promised treat. 
SUGGESTION OF A UNIVERSITY. 
The Chairman said : — It is a pleasure to mo 
to preside at an annual prize-giving of the Agri- 
cultural School. It recalls to me the glowing 
enthusiasm of my friend. Mr. Green, to whom it 
