8 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jan., 1899. 
The Hon. A. S. Cownery proposed the health of “The Minister for Agri- 
culture.’ He said they had all been very much pleased by what Mr. Mahon had 
said. He had been very much surprised to hear the College was actually 
making the large amount that Mr. Mahon said it was doing. He was sure it 
was very gratifying information. He hoped that a report would be submitted 
to Parliament periodically, showing all these matters, and showing how the 
profit was being made. If that was done, he was sure there would be a great 
many more students. He was also very pleased to hear such a good character 
of the students. They all knew Queensland boys were equal to any other boys, 
and when it came to downright hard work he did not believe they would 
shirk it. He believed Parliament was disposed to deal with this institution in 
no niggardly spirit. If the College proved a success, he was satisfied other 
institutions of a similar kind would be established in other parts of the colony. 
They were pleased to hear what had been done, and they would be much more 
pleased when the time arrived that the institution was a paying success. 
(Applause.) * 
Mr. Caraway, in responding, said Queensland was looking to this institu- 
tion to prove that agricultural colleges could be successfully carried on. (Hear, 
hear.) He hoped that they would avoid the errors and mistakes that had been 
made by similar institutions in other colunies. He had found students from 
other colleges coming to this colony, who after three half-years of work claimed 
to be proficient in at least fourteen or fifteen different subjects, each of which 
would take over four years to learn completely. What the Principal proposed 
to do here was to avvid that sort of thing. He desired that they should go 
in more for specialising—that those boys, for instance, who wished tuition 
in chemistry should be able to take it in the splendid laboratory they 
had, and under the excellent head of that laboratory ; that those boys who 
had a taste for dairying should be allowed to devote the greater part of their 
time to making themselves thoroughly proficient in that branch of agriculture; 
that those students who desired to take up market gardening should be allowed 
to place themselves more completely under the instruction of the horticulturist, 
who was a practical and efficient market gardener himself, and so learn ag much 
as could be learned on that subject in the three years. That briefly was the 
position which the Principal desired the department to take up with regard to 
the working of the College. He hoped that when students left it they would not 
be lost sight of ; that when they wanted employment they would be able to 
recommend them to it, and be able to recommend them with the certainty that 
they would do justice to the teaching they had received. He hoped also that 
when a student left and desired to find employment they would be able to find 
employment for him. He trusted that that would add to the attractions of the 
College, and that students would find that, instead of it being a detriment to 
them in getting employment, it would prove an advantage to them to have 
passed through it. (Applause.) 
The remainder of the afternoon was chiefly spent in resting under the 
cool shade of the College verandas. The party reached town again at about 
7°30 o’clock in the evening. 
The Labour Question. 
THERE is no disguising the fact that the difficulty with regard to labour this. 
crushing season is important in every sugar district of the colony. We admit 
that the crop is generally abnormally good, so far as the amount of cane to 
be taken off is considered, but there is no reason to suppose that smaller crops 
in the aggregate will be produced during the next few years. One thing only 
can reduce the acreage now under cane, If the lack of labour, which is so 
