LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.] --
AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES.
[To sit! EDITOR Or " 6PECTITOR."1
Sta—Will you allow me a short space in your columns to con- gratulate all those who are connected with Agriculture and Fisheries on having achieved such great success in the Agricul- tural Bill now before Parliament and the undertaking to the Fisheries Deputation by the Parliamentary Secretary for the reform and entire reconstitution of the present Board of Agriculture and Fisheries ? All those interested in the great Farming Industry and the important Fishing Trade have tried for years to obtain separate Departments in a first-class Ministry in which there should be Ministers with some know- ledge and personal responsibility for their respective interests with a really efficient permanent Under-Secretary and capable staff for both Agriculture and Fisheries. This has now been promised, and the responsible Under-Secretaries are to have direct access to the Ministers in each Department.
As regards the Fisheries, it will now be only necessary to secure that there is a capable and efficient staff to work under our friend Mr. Maurice, whilst it is to be hoped that the Agri- cultural Department will be efficiently equipped in the future. This reform, too long delayed, has now been emphasized in two ways—viz., by the refusal of the Fisheries' representatives to accept the unsatisfactory clauses relating to their industry in the Agricultural Bill and their withdrawal by the Government with a distinct and willing promise to introduce an entirely new Fisheries Bill next Session, and by the important change in the name, title, and status of the future office to a Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in the Agricultural Bill in the House of Commons.
I believe that I am the only surviving member of the small Committee of Agriculturists who met under the presidency of the late Lord Spencer over fifty years ago at the invitation of the late Mr. Albert Pell, M.P., and formed the Central Chamber of Agriculture, of which I was Chairman in 1871, whilst iu more recent years I have held the position of President of the Sea Fisheries Protection Association, and I must congratulate those great representative Associations on the realization of our per- sistent endeavours to obtain proper and necessary recognition for those who gather the harvest of the land and sea.—I am,
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