NOTES ON BUBAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 6

NOTES ON BUBAL TOPICS.

It is extremely difficult to define the relation

which subsists, or ought to About subsist, between the shows held Shows. in the leading provincial centres and those which do not claim to be anything more than mere district shows. At the recent meeting of the Blueskin A. and P. Society something approaching indignation was expressed at the remarks which fell from the retiring president of the Otago A. and P. Association regarding the continued existence of the country societies, and the opinion was formally expressed that the country shows should be feeders to the central show in Dunedin, which should be held at a later date, so bhat all prize-takers at country shows could meet as a grand finale for the season. Then again, there appears to be trouble in the Taieri Agricultural Society. An indignant " Old Member " hailing from North Taieri wakes up the officials generally in a long letter to the Advocate, and wants to know whether any notice is to be taken of the remarks made by the retiring president of the Otago A. and P. Association. I have also observed since that at the annual meeting of the Taieri Society last Friday it was decided to hold the next show at Outram and on Boxing Day. Now I have a very strong opinion that anything like rivalry between the Dunedin show and those in the surrounding country districts is a great mistake. I should have the greatest pleasure in witnessing the realisation of the opinion expressed by the Blueskin Society that the country shows should be feeders to the metropolitan. The ideal metropolitan show would be one at which only winners at local shows should compete. To attain this ideal something in the nature of affiliation should be brought about between the country societies and the metropolitan, and affiliation would imply representation, which would effectually change the constitution of the metropolitan societies. It is not necessary to assume that Dunediu should be the vorfcex into which all the exhibits should be drawn. Invercargill is entitled to the representation of Southland, and possibly Oamaru to that of the northern portion of Otago. It is certain that if shows are to be continued and remain of their originat value, the holding of them must be systema^ tised and a common object aimed' at, rattier than that each, like Halop the "tyynd, should, fight for its own hand.

Considering that the Minister for Lands has the

appointment of members of Elective waste land boards in his own Land ItonrdH. hands, it is somewhat odd that

he should find fault with them. If the process of selection by nomination has not been productive of advantage, it is hard to see how a popular election can be so. It may be cheerfully admitted that even an election might not produce a worse choice than Mr M'Kenzie, has made iv several of his recent appointments!

I do not suppose that any method of election— unless it were execrably bad — would result in the selection of a partizan editor of a nevspaper of the right colour, who had never lived in the country in his life, and whose knowledge, such as it wag, of the land laws was admittedly gained from reading, the proposal to elect members of waste lands boards is only intended to tickle the ears of the groundlings. It is evidently an emanation from the trades organisations, who seem to think a popular election as necessary a preliminary to the filling of any office as some people think a collection is to conclude a religious service. To such people nomination for anything smacks of favouritism and corruption. They would have an elected Upper House, an elected Governor, elected J.P.s — everything and everybody elected by the proletariat, which by some inscrutable method of reasoning is supposed to be an infallible judge of the qualifications necessary to the satisfactory filling of any post. But the proposed machinery of election is so preposterously out of proportion to the magnitude of the office as to excite ridicule. Members of the board are to receive 10s a aay for their services. In order to gain the position which will entitle them to this munificent sum it will be necessary to canvass an electorate of some 64,000 persons, and if particularly anxious to be elected it will, according to Mr G. F. Richardson, take a candidate about a year to canvass his electorate, and that at a cost of something like L7OO. And if the elections to land boards take place on the day of the general elections — which, by the way, is absurd, as there is no statutory day for holding general elections — the less will be overshadowed by the greater, and the elections to the boards become merely perfunctory affairs. Besides, what do town electors know, as a rule, about the qualifications necessary for a member of a land board? And if you exclude the town electors from voting are you not depriving the bone and sinew of the colony of a great privilege ? The proposal is simply ridiculous, and is nothing more than a wretched attempt to pander to tho supposed wishes of a number of irresponsible persons not yet sated with newly found powers. Butchers and bakers and candlestick makers are not necessarily heaven born law givers.

The regulations drawn up by Mr M'Kenzie are not considered liberal enough by Small Farm an 'association in Auckland Settlements, which has drawn up a petition to Parliament, and intrusted it to the care of Major Lusk. The petitioners state that they represent 600 members of the Auckland Small Farm Association, who are now united for the purpose of settling in a remote and uninhabited block of forest land. They submit that the regulations are not sufficiently liberal to promote settlement on forest lands, and they give the Minister for Lands the following large order. They ask that the regulations may be amended by " (1) Granting to all small farm settlers under the act the optional right of purchasing their holdings after they have complied with improvement conditions for four years ; (2) by permitting nonresidence on bush land for three years where double improvements are made ; ( 3) by returning to the regulation of 1885, which allowed associations to acquire Crown land by purchase to be laid off as a township for the members of their settlement ; (4) by allowing the associations to acquire land at a minimum price cf 10s per acre, and permitting them to arrange or contract for the necessary surveys, to be made under the supervision of the Survey department ; and (5) by permitting each settler to acquire a maximum area of 320 acres." Much of this will be flat blasphemy in the opinion of Mr M'Kenzie, who professes to believe that a settler thinks an "eternal lease" as good as a freehold. But it seems otherwise, for where men subdue Nature they have an unaccountable habit of thinking themselves exclusively entitled to the fruits of their own labours. It is not given to every man to bo so generous as to labour for the good of the State, more especially when the State is typified by the rulers of the present Government.

At the close of the session at the Dookie Agricultural College in Victoria, Dookie. some extremely interesting facts

were brought out. The report of the Principal stated that remarkable success had been achieved in making ensilage without pressure, and testified to the value of the feed thus provided during the late dry summer. The unemployed had been engaged in clearing operations and had made the college lands available for 1000 more sheep than before. Practical instruction had been given for the first time in carpenteriug and blacksmith work, and a satisfactory system had been introduced as regards harvesting, vineyard, and dairying pursuits. Dookie College has now got beyond the experimental stage, and has taken its place among the educational establishments of the colony. The agricultural college has steadily grown from very modest beginnings, and has gradually reached the ideal which practical men had in view. Our own Lincoln College might take many a lesson from Dookie, and we all hope for better things from it now that the proposal to make it available for scholarship winners in the public schools has met with so much favour.

Some interesting particulars concerning irriga-

tion are contained in a newsIrrigation, paper sent to me by a valued

correspondent, and as irrigation is in the air with regard to Central Otago, I may briefly summarise them. The extract is in tho form of a report to the Ashburton County Council by its engineer, Mr Baxter. He assumes that the irrigation period extends over six months, and that during that period a flow of 200,000 gallons a minute would, theoretically, be sufficient to cover the area of 225,000 acres to a 'depth of 10 inches. But certain allowances must be made for the purposes of distribution, and experience elsewhere has led to the elucidation of the following figures. Mr George G. Anderson, chief engineer of the Northern Colorado Irrigation Company, gives this example: — "The water duty of one cubic foot per second in the undernoted countries during the irrigating season, which generally lasts six months, is approximately as follows :—ltaly,: — Italy, 70 acres ; France, 83 acres ; greater part of California, 80 to 160 acres ; India, 100 to 200 acres, with larger areas when only one or two light waterings are applied during the season. The average might probably be set down at about 140 acres per cubic foot per second of supply measure at head works, and calculated with constant flow, of which about one-half is distributed—say, 140 acres to a depth of 15 iuches during the irrigation period of six months." The estimate of cost for maintenance of a 150,000 acre scheme, locally considered, was L 4350, made up as follows :—: — Maintenance of head works, mains' and submains, including damages from scour, storm- water, &c LIBOO Fords, bridges, culverts, guages, &c. ... 000 Engineering and law expenses, caretakers, <fee. , ••• - 1 "" 0 Accommodation works, &c, consequent on sub dividing, land claims, &c 500

Total L 4350 ym^n Central Otago is thoroughly opened

up such figures as these will prove of the utmost value.

From the Buenos Ayres Standard of June 4 I glean some interesting particuBuenoi lars regarding production in the Ayres. Argentine Republic, which is

frequently put forward as a rival to New Zealand in the matter of mutton and beef. The editor, in summarising periodical results for transmission to Europe, says : — "The frozen meab and saladero trades are flourishing. We exported last year 23,700 tons frozen meat, worth L 380.000. Nelson's factory at Quilmes employs 1500 handa ; killed last year 750,000 cows and 67,000 sheep. The Ncgra factory killed 360,000 sheep. The province of Entro Rios has 19 saladeros which kill 400,000 cows yearly. The Meat Extract Factory of Santa Helena kills 86,000 cattle. Devoto's can kill 150 daily. The San Carlos Factory at Concordia has often 1100 hands, and exports 15,000 tons of meat yearly." The industries are not neglected, as is shown by the return of factories, which is as follows :—: — Industry. Locality. Hand 3. Cloth Retiro 200 Paper Zarate 480 Boots Chacarita 970 There are altogether 296 factories worked by steam, with 380 engines, 6500-horse power, employing 8500 men and 3EOO women and children, supporting a population of at least 36,000 souls.

The article goes on to say that coal is an article

of primary necessity, as L 30.000 Some a year is paid for what is conDrawbacks, sumed by the fleet. There are

coal beds near the Andes, and one at San Rafael. There is also good petroleum, which has been tried comparatively with coal as a fuel with marked success. Surely a market for New Zealand coal ought to be found in South America. The railways in the Argentine Republic furnish a capital object lesson to the faddists who desire to tinker with the management of our own lines. The mileage is 7676, the capital involved L 71 ,800,000, and the profit L 625.000, or very much less than 1 per cent, on the ccst of construction. But then, the Argentines consider that money spent in railways will ultimately fructify, and they do not believe it to be sound policy to attempt to make the lines pay from the very commencement. A

.GHICOLA.