NEW CLAUSE.— (Substitution of Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for Board of Agri culture and fisheries.) (Hansard, 27 November 1919)

§ Captain FITZROY

I beg to move, "That the Clause be read a second time."

4.0 P.M.

This proposal has for its object the substitution of a Ministry of Agriculture for the present Board of Agriculture. It is not necessary to state at great length the reasons which make it desirable that this change should take place. Those who have interested themselves in the agricultural industry during the last few years are aware of the general desire throughout the country for a real revival of that industry, and must be impressed with the necessity of making the Department of the State which has to deal with it one of 1956 of first grade. It will be remembered that before the House rose last autumn there was a proposal made, by the Government before the House for raising the salary of the President of the Board of Agriculture to an amount similar to that received by the heads of the other big Departments of State, but through the vary proper desire of the House that at this particular time expenditure of that kind, if it could be, should be avoided, the proposal of the Government fell to the ground. That does not alter the case for this Department being under a Minister instead of being a Board. So far as I am aware, the importance of a Government Department does not consist in. the amount of the salaries which are paid, either to the head of the Department or to his subordinates, but in the status of the Department in being presided over by a, Minister. The other side of the question is the increasing responsibilities and duties which are rightly being put upon the Department which deals with agriculture. Not only is it dealing with many new questions, but it is also becoming the trustee, as it were, of the State for an enormous amount of land. For that reason, if for no other, it seems to me necessary that the Ministry of Agriculture should be a first grade Department.

The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of AGRICULTURE (Sir A. Boscawen)

The effect of this would be to abolish the Board of Agriculture, as a Board of Agriculture, and to substitute a Ministry of Agriculture. Of course, this is a big change in name. We have always been known as the Board of Agriculture, and in the old days, long before the present Board was constituted, there was a board, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. But the Board is a name, and nothing else, at present. The Board itself is a perfectly ineffectual body, which consists, no doubt, of very eminent persons, such as all His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State. It has met whenever it has been summoned, but as it has never been summoned the effect of its meetings has not been very great. I do not quite know what particular advantage is conferred by the change of name, but if there is a general feeling in the country that it would be better to have a Ministry which would be a real Ministry, and would not be a Board which is what may be called a 1957 sham Board, we are quite willing to accept the Amendment, to disappear as a Board and reappear immediately under I the altered style of a Ministry. Some people think that if they call us by another: name we shall be better, probably, than we were before, I do not think we can be I better. However, if the idea is that we might conceivably be a little better, I am quite willing to accept the change; and if it is the general wish of the House, I shall be perfectly willing to accept the Amendment.