The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1911.

Evening Star, Issue 14634, 2 August 1911, Page 6

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1911.

IjfTBHKSTWG and valuable addresses were delivered by His ExTha Governor cellency the Governor on Agriculture, and the Minister of Agriculture at the opening of the Otago A. and P. Society's Winter Show, the salient characteristics in each case being the easy display of direct knowledge and the absence of mere conventional platitude. We have known representatives of the Crown and other dignitaries whose speeches at agricultural shows and cognate functions were obviously the product of conscientious " cram," covering a more or less extensive ignorance of agricultural and pastoral conditions. Lord Islington spoke yesterday, as on some similar occasions in the North, with the facile mastery of an expert. He spoke as a farmer to farmers; and, reading between the lines, we can readily credit his assurance that " with all the duties "he was called upon to perform in his " capacity as Governor there were none I "that gave him greater satisfaction or j " from which he derived more useful in-' " struction than those which were "concerned with agricnlture." His Excellency modestly disclaimed any thought of lecturing on agriculture to the agriculturists of Otago; but the apologetic touch, though graceful, was really superfluous, and we are glad that the disclaimer was not too rigidly observed in practice. A happy—we had almost said an astute—compliment to Scottish virtues served as a prelude to an excellent dissertation (if the term is not too heavy) on certain aspects of

1 tiSSntifie ; and, inter alia, &n up-to-date iriicrest inj tho prospects and potentialities <rf, irrigation work in Central Otago. li>. regard to this matter also hfe Spoke the immediato knowledge of an actual observer. I A sebjime of irrigation in dry places whore tjhere was fertile soil would, he venture)J to say, bripg about a perfect revolution in the existing state of affairs. He had seen the most extraoqlinary transformation brought about fry a scientific scheme of irri- . , g&tion Im South Africa, and most .notablyjan Egypt. When those interested Hecame thoroughly conversant ■with the intricacies of irrigation he ■ confideijitly predicted that there would be a gieat future for those districts where this beneficent system was • going : tp be introduced. For sometime past the fanners of Otago, with fewi exceptions, have been very much alhje to the importance of keeping fully abnast with the latest scientific methods,'and the exhibitions of the A. and P. Soeaetj' have been largely instrumental id furthering this steady progress. A; share of the credit must also bfl given jio the Department of Agriculture, whjcij, though it often has to) bear th©| brunt of the farmers' prescriptive [privilege of grumbling, has done work'Of the highest educationJil value. We heartily congratulate/.the society on the swift recovery fiirmi the effects of a disaster which (it ! ife hardly too much to say) has almost ceejsed to be regarded as a disaster. It' would be easy and pleasant to expatiffte upon the varied merits of the Winter Show of 1911, but our space is strictrjr limited just now, and we must be content with an expression of confident hope that tho president's expectation, of a record attendance of visitors-asnll be fulfilled.