_ Mr. J. B. Noaxes asked if it was the intention of the Government to 
establish nurseries for sugar-cane in the Southern, Central, and Northern 
- districts. . 
Mr. Tuyynz said he had no hesitation in stating that he had under con- 
sideration a scheme for the establishment of one central sugar station and two 
sub-stations. Where they were to be located and other details, had yet to be 
considered. In any event he could not go definitely into the matter until he 
he had received the necessary approval of the scheme from Parliament. He 
hoped, however, to see these stations established, each of them equipped with 
competent chemical skill. This latter, he thought, would be necessary for 
their success. 
Mr. T. H. Wetrs (Isis) then read the following paper on 
3 FARM SERVANTS AND FARMERS. 
Tru difficulty of inducing people to settle on the land is one which is ever 
- before those whose care it is to develop and maintain the agriculture of new 
countries; and the development is accompanied by an ever-increasing want of 
farmers and farm labourers. 
Of all industries, probably that of agriculture in almost all its forms lends 
itself most to the profitable employment of individual effort, and the theory of 
small farmers rests upon an almost unassailable basis were it only possible to find 
asufliciency of farmers. Were this the case, the question of settling people on 
the land would, in such a country as this, be stripped of its greatest and 
almost only difficulty. 
The sugar, coffee, wheat, and some other industries, now slowly growing — 
and capable of almost indefinite expansion, would not only employ an indefinite 
amount of labour were it available at a certain price, but would also employ a 
far larger proportion of unskilled labour than most other branches of farming. — 
Of these industries, that of sugar particularly requires a very large proportion of 
comparatively unskilled labour for the operations of weeding, stripping, and — 
harvesting the cane; this work is at present efficiently done by South Sea 
Islanders, but might quite as well be done., in the more temperate parts of the 
colony at least, by white labour, and for the most part, as the work is moderately — 
light, by lads of from fourteen to twenty. The supply of white labour able 
and willing to work in the canefields is from various causes scarce, expensive, — 
and uncertain; and the cane-growers are therefore driven to employ coloured. 
labour. This, however, is unsatisfactory to the country at large, and, not 
always entirely satisfactory to the growers themselves. 
I would suggest, therefore, that an attempt be made to fill the want here — 
indicated, by European and native lads under contract and apprenticeship, on a — 
progressive scale of wages, and under Government reguiations and supervision, 
not only as a means to supply present requirements, but more particularly 
with a view of training and raising up a body of workmen used to agriculture, 
who will take up our Crown lands and, in their turn, train others in the same 
way 
such lads in his employment, it would benefit both agriculture and the country 
generally. 
We cannot, as farmers, offer the high wages and opportunities of amuse- 
ment which the towns afford, and which seem to have such a powerful attrac- 
tion to our young people, both native and immigrant; but it is possible to offer 
them fair and sure wages and the chance to become their own masters. 
I would therefore advovate the institution of a system made, if it can be 
done, sufficiently attractive to draw the peasant youth of our own colenies and 
of the old country, and would frame it largely on the lines adopted by our own 
Government in dealing with orphan lads, and place it under the control of the — 
Immigration Department. 
The want of such lads is more or less felt in all branches of farming, but 
more particularly in those mentioned ; and could every farmer have one ormore 
