222 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ave., 1899. 
TRIP TO MIRANI, &c. 
On Friday, 30th June, at the invitation of the Minister for Agriculture, 
the delegates journeyed to Eton and Mirani by rail, stopping, among other 
places, at Mr. Bridgman’s and the Victoria Meatworks. At the latter place, 
dinner was provided; and after the toast of the Queen had been honoured, 
Mr. F. W. Prex, in a neat speech, proposed the health of the Minister for 
Agriculture. 
The Hon. J. V. Caraway, in reply, said: Our time is short, but I should 
be lacking in courtesy if I did not acknowledge the kindness I have received 
throughout the Conference, and again to-day, from the delegates. The 
suecess of these Conferences, as I had occasion to remind you last year, is by no 
means entirely due to the Minister. It is largely due to those experts by 
whom he is accompanied, and who have, as I know they have, the good of 
the Department and the good of the agricultural interest of Queensland at 
heart. These gentlemen are always ready at all times to give information, 
and to advance, as far as lies in their power, the agricultural 
and pastoral industries of Queensland. The most satisfactory part of this 
Conference to myself, having, as I have, the interests of the Department at 
heart, was the unstinted praise at one time or another during the Conference 
that was bestowed on the Department. I say this because it is no credit to 
myself, for while the Minister is an ephemeral creature, here to-day and away 
to-morrow, the Department goes on like a running river, whatever Minister 
presides over it. It was therefore with the greatest pleasure that I heard, as 
the different subjects came up for discussion, one after another, delegates rise 
from their place on the floor of the conference hall and give praise to the 
Department for various actions it had taken. One delegate said he had madea 
start with some wheat obtained from the Department; another, when the dis- 
cussion on citrus fruits was on, said that his neighbour had told him that the 
fumigation done by the Department had been so eminently successful that he 
intended to buy a plant himself to continue the operation. Another man says 
he finds cow pea excellent not only as a green manure but as a food for men 
and stock, and that he got his first seed from the Department, which imported 
it. Another says the advice given by the coffee expert, who does not happen 
to be here, has been all that could be desired, and that he has put us in the 
way of making a fortune out of a plant that was formerly little grown in 
Queensland. All this is most satisfactory, and it shows that the Depart- 
ment is on the right course. It makes me hope that there will be 
instilled into the experts of the Department a certain feeling of esprit 
de corps (I call them “experts” for want of a better name—perhaps technical 
advisers would be more suitable), a feeling in the Department itself 
that each technical adviser is working not only for his own glorification but 
rather for the good of the Department and the glory of the agricultural interest 
in Queensland. We were in somewhat of a difficulty to-day to know how to 
entertain the delegates and show them over the land. Accommodation at any 
ordinary house or hotel would have been too small to hold such a number as 
we have, and in my difficulty the Meatworks came to my rescue. _ It is about 
the third time the Meatworks have done this for me, and it is through their 
kindness that we are here to-day. They have helped us to make a very” 
pleasant day, and I think we may very properly thank them. You are aware 
that there is now being held in London an exhibition called the Earl’s Court or 
Greater Britain Exhibition, the mining section of the Queensland court of which 
was, of course, committed to the Geological Department under Mr. Jack. The rest 
of the court, something like 10,000 feet of space, was committed to the Agricultural 
Department; and although we only had a very short time at our command in 
which to prepare an exhibit worthy of the colony, J am glad to say that the 
various meat companies, sugar companies, wool and wheat growers of the 
colony came to our rescue, so that we were enabled to make a display 
which, I believe, is worthy of any country in the Empire. I have @ 
telegram saying that on a certain date 100,000 people passed through the 
