XI 
AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS 
105 
“ This will grow and that will grow. You can send 
them to such and such a country and sell them for such 
and such a price ; and the cost of production should be 
roughly so much.” This admirable result is due partly to 
the patient and persevering efforts of the Government 
—more especially perhaps of the Agricultural depart¬ 
ment, who have quietly and steadily worked and 
experimented, often in the most disheartening con¬ 
ditions and with a minimum expenditure, to achieve 
this end. But still more is it due to all the first-comers, 
those who sowed where others will reap, who worked 
and experimented with their money and with their own 
hands, who faced cheerfully each new disease, each 
new pestilence with but small hope of success, and 
who undeniably, until the last few years, did not 
receive the right support and encouragement from 
those who should have given it. Of such men Lord 
Delamere comes undeniably first. 
Those settlers who have arrived in the last few 
brighter years are apt to take exception to the large 
grants of land obtained and still larger areas possessed 
by some of the first arrivals. They are apt to forget 
that these men have done the spadework, or rather 
represent the survivors of those who have done the 
spadework, and without their efforts there would have 
been little chance for the fortunes which later-comers 
like myself hope soon to obtain. The first comers all 
sacrificed money and comfort, many sacrificed health, 
and more than a few life. Those who have stuck on 
are now beginning to see some slight return in the 
increased value of their holdings. It ill becomes us to 
grudge it them. There are, however, one or two 
large early grants and concessions to companies which 
hardly stand on the same plane. 
