those men who— to borrow the old-fashioned language whidi modem
art cannot beautify— make the desert to rejoice and blossom as the
rose.

Mr. E. M. Jambs, M.B.O.S. : A Victorian colonist of some
tbixty-seven years' standing, I have in my professional capacity
seen a great deal of the country. I have gone through parts
without a road, and where there was nothing but forest or plain.
I have seen the agriculturist go into the depths of those forests where
stout hearts might dirink when they saw the work before th^n.
The agriculturist, without much knowledge of the district, has
taken up so many acres of land, and when he got there he would
find he had to clear it. In clearing this land he would very fire-
quently spend almost the whole of his streitgth and his money. I
mention this to show that the agriculturist has not cmly to be a
farmer and know how to till the ground, but he must also be a
woodman ; he must make his own implements, and he must live
upon the roughest. When, probably, he had got to the very end of
his tether as regarded money and food, he would find he had gone
through the summer and that he had to pass through a winter
before he could expect any result. I mention these things to
show that these men — ^many of whom, I am glad to think, have
succeeded — would have had their labours very much mitigated and
their hardships redoeed had they known where best to go and bow
best to set to work. Some might go into the plain country in the
epmgi whe«» aU kK^fcecl gip^en and beptiful, apd tidnk (Ut w;-



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Agricultural and Technical Edtication m the Colcnies. 107

where would do ; but six weeks after the place might be as bare as
Piccadilly. The experiences of these pioneers are very valuable,
and the question is — ^how are they to be kept and transmitted ?
While Mr. Moore was reading his paper, the thought occurred to
me — why should we not try, not only in England but in the entire
British Empire, the boarding out of youngsters ? If you were to
give them some technical knowledge and send them out to the
Colonies under the boarding*out system, I do not think you would
in any way offend the colonists ; although, I must tell you, they are
most averse to receiving the refuse of any nation, and I cannot
blame them for it. It occurs to me that under the plui I have sug-
gested many young people now in rags and tatters in this gigantic
population might be turned into men and women of a character
that the colonists would appreciate.

Mr. Alexandsb Bsoa: I may mention that I have been a
settler in Canada for many years — over a quarter of a century — and
I am at present more especially connected with British Columbia
as Colonisation Commissioner. The climate is moderate and even
delightful, especially towards the sea coast, but of course there is a
difference as you get towards the mountain ranges. The country
has been described by many excellent writers and by various
governors since the railway was opened, and now the province is
becoming better known. In reference to agricultural and technical
education, British Columbia and the rest of Canada deserve, I think,
the high estimation in which they are held in this respect. In the
Dominion of Canada generally the education is to a great extent
carried on systematically, and experimental ficmns have been estab-
lished &om the Atlantic to the Pacific, which is the more necessary
on account of the difference of climate in this immense territory.
The Ontario CoU^e is an excellent institution, and well deserves
the praise which has been bestowed on it. I am well acquainted
with Professor Brown ; he is a very able man, and no wonder the
Australian institution prospers under his charge. In British Col-
umbia there is no coU^e of agriculture yet, but there is an experi-
mental farm. The schools there are under a Minister of Education,
and are absolutely free to the people. Great pains are taken to
give a good education, and even the Indians are included in the
system. I think I am justified in saying that the present Minister
of Agriculture has it in his mind to establish the Department of
Agriculture on a better footing than it is at present, so that the
Province shall not be behind the other Provinces in this important
loat^i;, wA I mig add tb$^ when I return X ghaU be encou ra ged to



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•108 Agricultural and Technical Education in the Colonies.

press the matter from the point of view advocated by the lecturer
who has so ably handled the subject in connection with the various
Colonies and Dependencies of the Empire.

Mr. J. Mabtin : My interest in this subject arises from the {a^ei
that I am chairman of the West Australian Land Co., which has
just constructed the Great Southern Bailway, placing Perth in com-
munication with King George's Sound, which railway has opened
up a vast territory hitherto practically unknown. The Company
have as a subsidy 8,000,000 acres of selected land along its railway ;
therefore we are greatly interested in agriculture and doing our best to
get the land settled. Western Australia has at present no agricultural
college, but, in order to expedite the settlement of lands and in order
to meet that deficiency, I am engaged on a scheme for the estab-
lishment of a training farm, which will be in a small way a training
college also. The agricultural colleges in Great Britain have no
means of placing their students on Colonial farms, so my Company
proposes to work in imion with them, taking charge of the students
on arrival at the Colony, giving them one or more years practical
training on Colonial soil and in a Colonial climate before placing
them on selected farms where they will have the benefit of the
Company's fiarm manager for advice and assistance, a fee being
charged sufficient only to repay the actual cost of food, &c. It is
assumed by us that the scientific education will be acquired at home.
We have set aside a large tract of land in a good district for the
purpose, and I hope that in two or three months we shall be able to
commence the experiment, as I am now engaged upon a pamphlet
or prospectus describing our proposals. For the purpose of acquiring
information, I have been twice through Western Australia and have
also made a tour in the eastern Colonies. I visited the Bosewortjiy
College, South Australia, referred to by Mr. Moore, and made the
acquaintance of Professor Lowrie, and also of Professor Brown, of
the Victorian College at Longerenong, and received very valuable
advice from those gentlemen. This scheme seems to me to supply
such a great want that I am very much in hopes in a short time a
stream of youthful settlers will set in in our direction. If we succeed
with the farm I have mentioned, we have it in contemplation to
start another farm for a lower grade, getting small farmers and farm
labourers to come out with their families, and finding them employ-
ment in clearing the ground and preparing small homesteads, giving
them food, wages, &c., and then starting them on their own farms.
Whilst in Australia I was very much struck with the rough kind of
farming which prevailed in many distriotSi showing bow much in-



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Agricultural and Teehnkal Education in the Colonies. 105

siruction is needed. I went through the German districts, and found
that the two principal crops were wheat and grapes. The wheat
averaged in good years six or seven bushels an acre. I asked one
or two how many years they had had the land in cultivation, and one
of them astonished me by saying that he had grown wheat on the
same paddock for nearly thirty years in succession — without rest,
without manure, and, as I ascertained, with very shallow ploughing !
In Western Australia the soil is virgin, and I find our settlers are
reaping about thirty bushels, and that fruit of all kinds grows very
profusely. Every week we are selling a number of feurms ; last year
(our first year) we settled sixty-four farms along our line of railway.
If we can keep on at that rate we shall very soon add considerably to
the population of Western Australia. It is stated that the abori^al
races will not settle down, but last week's mail brought us the
news that a half-caste aboriginal, having made money at Eungawing,
desired to settle down, and had purchased from our Company a
feurm of 800 acres. It will be very interesting to follow that man's
future career.

The Ghaibmak : With reference to the concluding remarks of the
last speaker, I could heartily wish it had fallen to the lot of the
learned Professor of my name, instead of to the General, to address
you now, and to bring the evening's proceedings to a close. He
would, doubtless, have spoken to you on the subject before us to far
better purpose than his soldier namesake. I wUl, however, under-
take on the part of the meeting, and on my own, to congratulate Mr.
Moore on the valuable discussion he has elicited. The merits of the
paper to which we have listened with such interest have been very
considerable, and every one who has addressed us since has added
materially to its store of information. I do not think we have often
had matter of more importance to the Empire at large better put
before us or spoken to. Will not the Fellows of the Boyal Colonial
Institute, and their friends present to-night, and more especially
those who, like myself, have spent many years under the flag in
our Colonies, agree with me that it is a pride and a privilege
to hear, as we have done from such sources as Mr. Moore has
quoted, of the progress of agricultural and technical education in
tiiose great possessions? When we consider how the Colonies
of England have already been prospered by the spread of such
beneficent education, we can better bring home to ourselves what
is yet to be done at home and abroad by a wise and persevering
development of such teaching by their respective governments ;
and assuredly we at home in this matter, as in others too, may



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110 AgrimUural and Technicdl EdacaUon in the Cotoniei*

learn mnoh from the healthy example set us, as we have heard
this evenmg, by our great dependencies across the seas. For
my part, I could not, I confess, hear this paper without an ever-
present sense and consciousness of how sadly tardy we in these
islands have been in adopting measures previously and very success-
fully at work in our Colonies. And as regards, with all her faults,
my own dear native land, I can never cease to lament how neglect-
ful we have too long been to train and to encourage the great indus-
trial resources of Ireland, and in not having been much earlier in
the field to foster them by means of those schools and colleges which
we have heard so much of to-night as adopted by so many of her
sons in other lands. May it be given us under a Minister of Agri-
culture, and under inspiration of the paper and discussion we have
now had, to rise more and more to the level of our great responsi-
bility — as well to these little island homes of ours in Great Britain
and Ireland as to the vast empire beyond, which at once owns and
loves their sway. I beg again to convey our thankftilness to Mr.
Moore for his opportune and important paper.

Mr. MooBE : This is the second occasion on which my small
efforts have b^en kindly received by the members of this Institute.
There seems but little to say by way of reply on this discussion. If
my paper had brought us nothing more than the speech of Sir
Philip Magnus, I should have been well satisfied. Mr. Senior seems
to have imagined that in advocating a united system for the
English-speaking race I meant the same teaching in each place.
What I rather meant was that we should adopt a somewhat similar
plan to that adopted in France, where, both as regards France and
her colonies, the system is worked by a central authority in Paris,
the government providing the teaching staff and the staff for carry-
ing out the experimental work, and giving assistance on the same
plan in every part of the Empire. What I meant was that assist-
ance should be given on some plan applicable to the whole of our
colonies and dependencies. Before I sit down, I have to ask you
to give a very hearty vote of thanks to General Lowry : you all
know how admirably he has presided. We all regret the absence
of Sir Alexander Gait, but I am sure a better substitute could not
have been found.

The Ghaibman acknowledged the compliment, and the proceed-
ings terminated.



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Ill



SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING.

A BPECiAL General Meeting of the Institute was held at Princes
HaU, Piccadilly, on Monday, January 26, 1891, the lOdrd
anniversary of European settlement in Australia. H.B.H, the
Prince of Wales, K.G., G.C.M.G., &c., President of the Institute,
presided.

Conspicuous among the decorations of the platform was the
Australian wattle blossom, bouquets of which were carried by many
of those present.

The Minutes of the last Ordinary General Meeting were con-
firmed.

The Pbesident : It affords me great pleasure, as President of
the Boyal Colonial Institute, to take the Chair on this occasion,
and to introduce to you my noble friend Lord Carrington, who has
recently returned from being Governor of New South Wales, and I
have little doubt you will Usten with great interest and pleasure to
the Paper he is about to read to you.

Lord Cabbu^qton then read his Paper on

AUSTRALIA AS I SAW IT.

It would perhi^ be hardly possible for any man to presiune to
address so representative and distinguished a gathering as this
without a certain amount of diffidence, and it seemed at first a very
open question whether I could accept the courteous invitation of the
Council of the Royal Colonial Institute; but when your Royal
Highness honoured me with the intimation that if a paper was read
yon would consent to preside, and when out of compliment to the
Australias you selected January 26, the anniversary day of New
South Wales, it was impossible for me to hesitate for one instant.
The suggested title, "Australia as I saw it," only indicates my in-
dividual opinions, and I propose this evening to give in as plain
terms as possible my impressions of that portion of Australia — New
South Wales— in which it was my good fortune for five happy years
to represent Her Majesty the Queen. It must, of course, be distinctly
understood that these impressions are mine and mine alone. I have
no wish to cram others with my own opinions, but only to explain
very simply the impressions that have forced themselves upon me



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112 Australia as I saw it.

during my stay in the midst of a most favoured portion of the British
Empire.

Five years ago I landed in Sydney with my wife and my childrenj
hardly knowing a single soul by sight in the whole country.

My great desire was to be free from prejudice and open to im-
pressions. The impressions and ideas brought back from New South
Wales may be common to myself and to others. In my opinion
others do share them, but I ^dll not venture to say so, because the
first thing that a Governor hears when he arrives is that Governors
must form the worst opinions on every subject, because they carry
their atmosphere about with them everywhere, and are even sup-
posed sometimes to convey in the same train the flags and decora-
tions with which they are to be welcomed the next morning.

However, I am not now the mouthpiece of others, and though I
will not pose as an " isolated original," I repeat again that you must
take me as only speaking for myself, and telling you my own ideas.
It is only the experience of five years ; many of those present have
known New South Wales much longer, and can probably give you
better information. Some of you may not agree with me, and some
may, perhaps, think my words too confident. If that is so, be
pleased to excuse me for that, and let me excuse myself on the
principle that ** The power of conversion is inherent in sharply-
defined doctrines," and that plain speaking comes naturally to most
men.

I will now at once begin the subject on which I have to say a few
words, and give you my text, taken from a speech by H.B.H. the
President at a meeting of this Institute :—

" We are, in fact, a vast English nation, and we should take great
care not to allow those who have gone forth from among us to
imagine that they have in the slightest degree ceased to belong to
the same community as ourselves."

I trust that his Boyal Highness will not think that he is going
to be brought into the difficulties of controversy. These words of
his express, better than it ever has been expressed, an opinion
common to every subject of the Queen. They are words which
should be remembered and cherished by us all, and handed down to
our children's children.

But how the question is to be worked out is another story. A
short while ago EngUsh Englishmen were carried away by the
notion of Imperial Federation. It was a beautiful and a suggestive
proposal, and wise men hoped that, though it might be an ideal, it
was not a fiancy. Nobody quite seemed to understand how it was to



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A^MrdKa €^ 1 9m> H* 113

be done, but they said it must be done, because they expected it
might be done. There were suggestions of an Imperial Council to
deoida great ieiiies and of a Commercial Union or ZoUverein be-
tween England and her Colonies. Now it is beginning to be seen
that there are some difficulties in the way. If an Imperial Council
is constituted, will the Colonies agree to be involved in European
wars, and pay their share, or are we going to give them representa-
tion, and thus take away the power at present centred in the Parlia-
ment of the United Kingdom without any compensatory taxation ?
How many of Her Majesty's subjects are to be r^resented upon this
Council, and how shall the Franchise be determined ? Is India to
be admitted, or to have the door shut in her face for ever ? If the
door is not to be dosed, and if population can be the only test, are
we to look forward to endless entanglement in practical difficulties
brought upon us according to the discretion of Asiatic races ? The
doctor, withimt eonsuUing the patient as to his symptoms^ or
looking at any books on the suliject, concocted a pill, and seems to
have told the patient to swallow it^ saying : '' There's plenty of gilt
(» it ; I don't know what it c(tttains» or what it will do, or how it
wiU work, bxMi it kpk» moe. Be quick and take it."

Still, thrae remains the broad fact that we are people of the same
conmnmity. Those wofds, '' the same community," form, as it were,
the base &om whiob inquirers must start. The outline of the
aontraet lies befese us. How is it to be filled up in this and in
future generations ?

The strength of the broad &£t that we are people of the same
oommnnity is brought home to an Australian Governor almost at
once. There are people of the same kindred, speaking the same
languftgev following &e same laws, accustomed to the same habits,
and with whom, as with ourselves, attachment to a Parliamentary
Government has become a part of the national policy.

Kevertheless, it was also noticeable that great differences existed.
A scattered population, according to European notions, in a vast
country ; a small proportion of that population settied upon the soil ;
freedom of mind and habits nurtured by more air, more sun, more
space ; influence centred in Sydney and in other of the larger towns,
but not in the thinly-peopled country districts— all are striking
features of New South Wales. The most salient feature of all was
the power of growing and conscious strength.

It is ahnost needless to ask whether we wish to hold this splendid
country with us. We are eager to keep and aid it. How and by
what mmm tii^Md dan be^gipeiis a question which is only to be



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114 Aiittralia as I sa/w it.

solved by time, by oiroumstanoes, by the current of external and
internal events.

Let us first consider this growing strength to which allusion has
been made, and then deal with its results. Do you suppose for one
single instant that this great country of Australia is going to remain
as she is, with a population of four and three-quarter millions, or
1*4 to the square mile? It has been lately calculated that
Continental Europe supports now 156 persons per square mile,
including all kinds of land. Australasia is said to have 1,167,000
square miles of fertile land, excluding poorer grass runs. If this be
so, Australasia can support more than 182 millions of people, and if
her present rate of increase, estimated at thirty per cent, in ten
years, should continue, in less than ninety years her population
will be as large as the population of Great Britain at the present
time.

Statistics after dinner are as odious as a corked bottle of claret,
but I am obliged to ask you to swallow a little more.

Since 1861 the people of New South Wales have nearly quad-
rupled, and they really are increasing as &st as they can, as the
facts that the average number during the last ten years has been
four-and-a-half children per woman — ^married women — and that one
mother in every 116 gives birth to twins, may serve to prove.

The country is five times the size of Englwd, and with a popula-^
tion no denser than that of France could support forty-eight millions
of people.

Goal-fields have been found to exist over an area of 25,000 square
miles, as against about 4,000 square miles for the coal-fields of
Great Britain.

In 1889 the value of wool exported exceeded ten-and-a-half millions,
the value of gold was nearly three-and-a-quarter millions, and it is
said that, though the nominal trade between Great Britain and New
South Wales amounted in 1889 to the large sum of nearly seventeen-
and-three-quarter millions out of a total Australasian trade of
146 millions, it is probable that the actual value of this trade was
considerably more than twenty-five millions.

In 1881 it was estimated that, according to population, the external
trade of the Colony was upwards of three times that of Canada,
nearly five times that of France, nearly eight times that of the
United States, more than sixteen times that of Austria, and more
than twenty-five times that of Russia, and its average abeady nearly
double that of the Mother Country.

It would be easy to go on givmg statistics till twdre o*dotkt bat



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AuBtraUa as I saw iu 115

what has been here merely glanced at must be taken as a suggestion
of the vast capability of this comitry*

In my farewell speech last October, I was able to state that the
revenue receipts of New South Wales in 1885 were seven-and-a-half
millions ; this year they are over nine miUions. Five years ago
18,000 people were employed in mining, and the value of the output
was two-and-a-half millions. This year we have 28,000 miners,
with an output of nearly four-and-a-half millions. The total
trade was forty-and-a-half millions, it is now forty-six-and-a-quarter
millions. In shipping the total tonnage was four-and-one-eighth
million tons ; in 1890 it was five-and-a-quarter million tons ; and
while cattle have only increased haU-a-million head, sheep have
increased &om thirty-seven to fifty millions, half of the whole
number in the Australasian Gobnies.

Further, the Gobny has taken the great step of improving
internal communications by means of a penny postage, in spite of
the vast distances to be traversed. I can only hope that, when our
postal conventions with other countries will admit, the present rate
of 2^(2. may be further reduced to a penny.

Now let us consider the result of this rapidly-growing strength.
It is tempting to use the words of Henry James, the funous
American, when describing Hawthorne : ** A large juvenility is
stamped upon the feMse of things, and in the vividness of the present
the past, which died so young and had time to produce so little,
attracts but little attention."

Men have been so occupied with ** the vividness of the present,"
with the importance of their own individual afEiurs, that public
opinion has not become so " crystallised," or so keen and sharp, as
in the Mother Country. But within the last ten years public opinion
has been advancing^ like everything else, by leaps and bounds* and
is rapidly becoming a very strong '* juvenile " indeed, with a will of its
own, and the Australian will is a question which has to be feiced.

In old days there was a maxim, '* Spare the rod, spoil the child."