Sra Nov.
We hive already expressed the approval which has generally been felt throughout the community with regard to the Council's action respecting the milk supply. But regulations, however admirable are seldom constructive. They direct the course of events into channels, they frequently lessen friction and 0 are productive of good results, but their tendency is more often than not merely restrictive, We have to look to other sources for improvement, To take an extremely simple example of what we wean; consider the rule that drivers of vehicles shall pass each other right arm to right arm, How many centuries such an arrangement may have existed we know not, but we are quite certain that with every scrupulous care in its observance it has had absolutely no effect in the improvement of the breed of horses so directed. Instances might be multiplied. The old notion of law and of regulation generally was summed up in that sternest of stupid dicta—Thou shalt not, 'I'he business of the lawgiver was to raise barriers, not to open gates, Prevention not permission was his password, and so the sterile curse of the soul-crawling negative spreads itself over what should have been regions of glad productiveness. Are we to be content with it here iv Shanghai? Is it enough that we issue regulation upon regelation and restriction upon restriction? Should there not be some attempt made to improve as well as direct? We have anost' of us to make up our minds to this fact, that though in the Biblical sense we have ("no continuing city" here, we are not likely to require much of any other. In other words to most of us Shanghai is home, and our aim, if we would have things us we like them, should be to introduce' stich home-like improvements as ale likely to benefit us, And in this comiegtion there is no doubt as to the rooia for improvement in, native produce, particularly in food supply. If-we look at home we find that within the present century our beeves have increased in average weight by some forty to fifty per cent, that sheep, pigs, and poultry have made similar improvement. Our fruit is better, and more pleutifal; our vegetables are ft for market at an earlier date, they are more varied in kind, and of higher quality than formerly. Our poultry produce more eggs, and our cows more milk.
The ultimate cause of all this advance is our greater scientific knowledge of nature's methods. We select the shorthorn, the Devon, the Hereford and the Alderney each for its special quality, and the fittest only are allowed to propagate their kind. We have our Southdowns and Merinos amongst the sheep, our Berkshire pigs and our fowls innumerable, and by strict adference to nature's own directions decade after decade, almost year after year these are continually improving. How comes it that to the nineteenth century this extraordinary advance should have been reserved Would it not have been welcomed earlier? Undoubtedly it would. But somehow or other man never hit upon the stimulus which was needed to turn the ever present desire for gain into the sharpest of spurs for improvement. That stimulus was competition. 'I'here is an innate desire in every man to excel. If he cannot have the strongest muscles, the fleetest limbs, or the greatest staying power there is no reason why he should not have the fastest race-horse, the best breed of cattle, or the smartest yacht. The Chinese would be more or tess than human did he not possess this quality. In fact we know perfectly well that he does. All that is needed to make it as strong an incentive to him as it is to ourselves is to pit him against his fellows. Our proposal, therefore, is that we lose no time in inaugurating a series of shows open especially to natives, but with permission to foreign exhibitors to join in should. they so desire. The little that has hitherto been done in this way is capable of great development. Not only should vegetables, fruit, flowers and all other sorts of garden produce be shown, but dairy produce of all kinds should have its special department. Ihe hest cows, sheep, goats, fowls, and ponies should be avwanded suitable prizes, In view of the new factories that have sprang up around us, an improved cotton would be more than welcome, and we know of no such likely means of gaining the desired end as the advertisement which follows successful exlubition, This is really tha secret of much of the modern, excellence fonnd in our home products. lo it we owe the quality of our butter, cheese, beef and mutton, Our best breeds of horses, cows, sheep, pigs, farls, may trace their improvement. same source. In our exhibitions we have taken wider ground, and have pitted province against province, and even kingdom against kingdom. The result is that the products of our fields and gardens, the inmates of our stalls and stables, and even the inanimate productions derived from the bowels of the earth were never so admirably adapted to the wants of man as they are at' this moment. Our immense success is doubtless due to the wisdom which has led us to follow Nature's own mode of procedure, "to find out. the fittest and ensure its survival.
To come back to local facts for a moment. It cannot be doubted that were the superiority of any native dairy to be plainly proved by its exhibits in open show, the effect. would be either the rapid extinction of the inferior or a general improvement all round, In either case the public would be' the gainer. And the same is true of every other species of produce which we have to buy from the grower, We are paying tens of thousands of taels aunaally for unnecessary imports. With.her wide range of climate, her cheap laud, and her' equally cheap labour, China needs but proper direction to be a great exporter. But the stimnlus must come from without, The periodical shows which we now advocate must owe: their commencement to foreign energy. There might well, nay, their ought to be, natives on the committee, and perhaps " sub-committees composed entirely of natives to manage details, 'I'he idea is, however, too new for them to be sure of success alone, Besides we have in view the well-being of the foreign community, It is for their good that we hope to see an improvement in every kind of. native supply, and it must be their duty to do whatever, they -can to bring about so desirable a result. We say nothing of details, first because space will not permit, and secondly because a considerable amount of expert knowledge and discussion is necessary before 'a successful start could be made,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.