THE EXPERIMENT FARMS.

Northern Advocate, 17 March 1913, Page 3

THE EXPERIMENT FARMS.

Referring editorially to the scheme; >f reorganisation of the Department >f Agriculture, suggested by the Secretary of the Department (Mr F. S. 3 ope), who proposed in the annual •eport of the Department the estab.ißhment of, say, twenty .Government Earms for demonstrations, stud breeding, experiments, and the instruction of learners, and who incidentally criticised severely the system at present in vogue on the experiment farms, the Hawera "Star" says:— "The proposed revolution is estimated from £250,000 to £500,000, spread over at least ten years. Altogether the case, as made out by + b? Agricultural Department's own secietary, stands as a lurid indictment of every Minister of Agriculture the country has ever had, and of the De-

partmental staff, too, including the secretary himself. There are, however, practical farmers who state that the work which has been done, and is being done, on the country's experimental farms, decisively discounts the secretary's criticisms. But charges have been made as from within the Department itself, and the country is entitled to a formal and very full statement on the subject from the Minister for Agriculture. It should be. categorical, and to the utmost possible extent non-partisan, for the thing at stake is the efficiency of a Department, which has nothing to do with politics, but a direct and practical bearing on the industrial prosperity of the country. If the secretary is right, then the remedy he suggests should be considered without delay and with the utmost seriousness; if he is wrong, it should be shown to the satisfaction of Parliament and the country how, why, and where he is so, and to what extent in every particular. The matter d:es not concern the Department alone, but all New Zealand."