H.—29.

I took the opportunity while in Australia of visiting country districts of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, and research institutions such as the Waite Institute at Adelaide, the Werribee Experiment Station near Melbourne, and Hawkesbury Agricultural College, the Sydney Veterinary School, and the Grlenfield Veterinary Research Station in New South Wales. By the excellence of the facilities afforded me I was enabled to form some conception of the tremendous potentialities of the Australian Continent, and an appreciation of the very competent way in which the resources of that great country are being developed. Australia will in future be a formidable rival of New Zealand in certain lines of primary production in which our Dominion has enjoyed pre-eminence, but I am convinced that the two countries have so many interests in common that competition must be accompanied by co-operation, both in marketing our produce and in the solution of production problems of similar origin. The interchange of information and ideas will receive every encouragement from my Department, and I hope that it will be possible in some cases to have this effected by temporary loans of specialist officers. The accompanying statement by the Acting Director-General of Agriculture and the reports of the heads of the various Divisions of the Department cover a wide range of subjects. The staff of the Department has done excellent service, of which I record my full appreciation. I have, &c., W. Lee Martin, Minister of Agriculture. His Excellency the Governor-General.

3