ever, utter a word which suggests that the Department has
any ground of complaint against the country for the spirit in which it
has been met; especially as there was one factor to be taken into
account which made it difficult for public opinion to approve of our
policy. As I have already explained, a large capital sum of a little
over L200,000 was handed over to the Department at its creation. During
the first year, what with the organisation of the staff, the thinking
out of a policy on every side of the Department's work, the constitution
of the statutory committees to administer its local schemes in town and
country, the agreement, after long discussion, between the central body
and these committees upon the local schemes, and all the other
preparatory steps which had to be taken before money could wisely be
applied, it is obvious that the Department could not have spent its
income. In the second year, and even the third year, savings were
effected, and the original capital sum has been largely increased. What
more natural than that in a poor country a spending Department which was
backward in spending should appear to be lacking in enterprise, if not
in administrative capacity? But whether the policy was right or wrong it
has unquestionably been approved by the best thought in the country, a
fact which throws a very interesting light upon the constitutional
aspects of the Department. At each successive stage the policy was
discussed at the Council of Agriculture and its practical operation was
dependent upon the consent of the Boards which have the power of the
purse. A Vice-President who had not these bodies at his back would be
powerless, in fact would have to resign. Thoughtless criticism has now
and again condemned not only the parsimonious action of the Department,
but the invertebrate conduct of the Council of Agriculture and the
Boards in tolerating it. The time will soon come when the service
rendered to their country by the members of the first Council and
Boards, who gave their representative backing to a slow but sure
educational policy, and scorned to seek popularity in showy projects and
local doles, will be gratefully remembered to them.

Already we have had some gratifying evidences that the country is with
us in the paramount importance we attach to education as the real need
of the hour. Most readers will be surprised to hear that in the short
time the Department has been at work it has aided in the