Abstract

I must first thank you, Mr. Sampson, and the Agricultural Department very sincerely on behalf of Lady Willingdon and myself for the cordial welcome you have given us today and for your address to which I am sure we have all listened with the deepest interest. It is a great pleasure to me to come here and perform this ceremony. I regard it also as a great privi- lege for I feel that I am helping on a department which has done most invaluable service in the past and is likely, with the help of the new building, to do still greater service in the future. My pre- decessor, Sir Arthur Lawley, in the years 1906 and 1909, when laying the foundation stone of the Agricultural College and after performing the opening ceremony, did foresee a great future for this department and I think I can truly say that in this year 1922, when I lay the foundation stone of this new building, we have travelled far along the road up which Sir Arthur Lawley was look- ing. I observe that the building, of which I am to lay the founda- tion stone and with which I am glad to think one of my names is going to be associated, has already progressed very far beyond the stage at which foundation stones are usually laid. Let me say that I am very glad to see it for two reasons. One is that I need now have no apprehension that in future years I may find here a lonely stone, just that and nothing more. I say this, for it is one of the sorrows of Governors to meet from time to time scattered throughout the country grim spectres of their past in the shape of foundation stones which have never borne the burdens they were intended to carry. My second reason is that it gives me an opportunity of congratulating the Public Works Department on the fair building which they are in process of erecting and this I do very sincerely.

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