1 Dec., 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 383 
Department of Agriculture. 
EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OF THE HONOURABLE THE 
SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE, 
“AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL SOCIETIES. 
“Out of the 140 societies applied to some months ago for information 
required for this Report, only 84 have forwarded the necessary particulars. 
Of these 84, the Royal Agricultural Society of Toowoomba, founded in 1860, 
is the oldest. That society has also the largest revenue, and has spent the 
largest amount in improvements. Its revenue last year was £1,326, and its 
total improvements to date are valued at £38,500. The society with the 
largest membership is the Lockyer Agricultural and Industrial Society, 
Laidley, which has 302 members, of whom 201 are agriculturists. This is the 
largest number of agriculturists shown by any society. In a membership of 
111, the Longreach Pastoral and Agricultural Society has no agriculturists, 
and out of 258 members the Townsville Pastoral, Agricultural, and Industrial 
Association has only 11 agriculturists. The last-mentioned society expended 
the most money during the year—viz., £1,657, of which £241 was for salaries 
and wages. The Drayton and ‘'’oowoomba Agricultural and Horticultural 
Society offered the largest amount in prizes—viz., £309, allotted thus: £157 
for stock exhibits; £75 for agriculture; £9 for dairy produce; £49 for 
“jumping events”; and £19 for competitions classed as miscellaneous. Hight 
societies confined their work to the holding of shows. Of the rest, while most 
can claim that they exist to further the general interests of agriculture, 
relatively few give details of their operations. Among the honourably con- 
spicuous exceptions, the most conspicuous is the Drayton and Toowoomba 
Agricultural and Horticultural Society, whose secretary’s report ig convincing 
proof that the society neglects no means or opportunity of promoting the 
interests of the farmer.” 
[Since the above paragraph was published, the National Agricultural and 
Industrial Association of Queensland has furnished the Department with the 
particulars asked for early in the year. These particulars show that the society 
contains 675 members, of whom 97 are agriculturists. Its revenue for the 
year was £4,311 9s. 6d., and its expenditure £4,742 18s. 9d., of which 
£985 12s. 10d. was in wages and salaries. The value of the prizes offered was 
£1,352 15s. 6d., allotted as follows:—Horses, cattle, sheep, and swine, 
£673 2s. Gd.; poultry, dogs, and canaries, £100; district societies, £200; 
industrial, £65 17s, 6d.; dairy produce, £40 18s. ; agricultural, £102 2s. 6d. ; 
jumping, £146; woodchopping, £25. The amount spent in improvements 
during the year was £120. 
It may be stated that the societies furnishing returns have on their rolls 
5,765 members, of whom 2,794 are agriculturists. The total income of all 
these societies is £14,985, and the total expenditure £16,545. The total 
amount given by them in prizes was £3,788 14s. 6d., of which £1,088 1s. 9d. 
was for agricultural exhibits. 
Thanks are due to the societies which have given the information requested. 
The compliance was the more considerate because only 41 of them receive 
subsidy ; and even in the case of the subsidised societies, the furnishing of the 
statistics asked for is not as yet a condition of the grant. | 
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