454 
A Use foe Dividends. 
If you consider wliat is necessary, I think you will see 
that what you require, at any rate in every large district, 
is a really independent scientific observer who can co- 
operate with those employed by Government; and I cannot 
conceive any better reserve fund, in which part of the large 
dividends now being derived from rubber can be invested, 
than in providing additional rubber experts under the direc- 
tion of the Planters’ Association (hear hear). I believe 
that no better permanent reserve fund can be formed, be- 
cause after all in the most ordinary wav rubber every year 
is taking something from the soil. What are you doing to 
replace that something? 
Scientific Study. 
Of course, in nature something is being taken from the 
soil by rubber in such places as the virgin forests of the 
Amazon, but by means of the white ant that constituent is 
being restored to the soil which has been depleted by the 
rubber. Here you look after your labour and your weed- 
ing, but the fact remains that you cannot go on taking cer- 
tain constituents from the soil You at last come to the 
time when your rubber, as with the gold streaks in quartz, 
begins to pinch out. This is another argument in favour 
of the scientific study of the industry by the Government and 
by those who are more immediately interested in the matter. 
I am afraid that I have talked to you a long time, but I 
think it is necessary at a time when everything is looking 
very promising, and people are inclined to be optimists. 
Optimism. 
I myself am an optimist in regard to rubber and a great 
many other things, and that optimism is found on a firm 
belief in the intelligence and resources' of my countrymen. 
I think it is the only thing which justifies the optimism be- 
cause there is no doubt there are a great many dangers 
surrounding the agricultural industry of this country — 
dangers that are far more numerous than any of us have 
any idea of — but I feel assured that my countrymen will 
face that condition of things with the spirit and the courage 
that characterises them on such occasions, and that they 
will strive to make agriculture a permanent source of em- 
ployment and riches to this country and the community. 
