DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 97, 22 April 1909, Page 7

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

HOW EXPENSES CAN BE

REDUCED

CHRISTCHURCH, April 21. When Mr 11. McNab was in Christchurch yesterday he was asked to express an opinion in regard to the reorganisation of the Agricultural Department, of which he had charge when he represented Mataura in the House of Representatives. He said that he did not know what alterations were proposed, but it was a Department which under stress of financial conditions might be /educed enormously. If it was proposed merely to make a reduction of the cost, that could be done by abandoning a number of the duties undertaken by the Department in the interests of agriculture. That course would bring about a very mai-ked reduction in the expenses connected with the Department's affairs. In that case, of course, the farming community would have to forego a number of luxuries they enjoyed, in the same way as a private person had to relinquish luxuries when he began to cut down his expenses.