IMPERIAL AGRICULTURAL COUNCIL.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17293, 3 November 1921, Page 12

IMPERIAL AGRICULTURAL COUNCIL.

CONSTITUTION AND POLICY. (raou OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, September 20. At the Agricultural Conference, held , under the auspices of the British Empire Producers' Organisation in July, a resolution way passed setting up a provisional committee for the purpose o framing an Imperial agricultural policy. This committee (which included as New Zealand representatives, .Messrs B Seth-Smith, W. Montgomery, W. E. Reynolds,, and Colonel John Studbaa since met and settled the questions of broad principle upon which tne drafting of the constitution ana policy should proceed. A sub-commit-tee was appointed to draft the constitution, whiuh was submitted to another meeting of the provisional comnutee and debated clause by clause. At this meeting the Provisional Oommittee, by resolution, suggested to the council of the organisation, that it (the committee) sliould' become ''the Agricultural Council of the Empire Producers' Organisation, and passed unanimously the constitution and policy. According to the terms of the constitution the council is to consist of representatives from associations concerned with products of the soil ana live stock, and the business of bhe "council is to be conducted by an executive committee, whioh shall be appointed annually, and shall meet at | feast once a quarter. The committee is to consist of not less than 12 or more than 20 members, of whom five shall form a quorum. Members of the firstcommittee aire: A. H. Aslibolt (Tasmania), J. Rurtt-Davy (South African Maize Growers and Judges' Association) , J. S. Corbett (Empire. Forestry Association), Major "VV. M. Crowdy (Associated Producers of East. Africa), the Hon. J. McEiven Hunter (Queensland), V. A; Malcolmson (viceohairman, British Empire' Producers' Organisation), Lord Neston, K.C.S.I. (India,), W, J. Mirrlees (South Africa), Ben. H. Morgan (chairman,_ British I Empire Producers' Organisation), Sir Douglas Newton, K.B.E. . (Central Landowners' Association), Herbert Padwick (National Fanners' Union), H. W. P.otta (Australia), Major L. Renton (Associated Producers of East Africa), R. Rutherford (West Indies), J. S. Seddon, M.P. (British Workers' League), Sir Anker Simmons, K.B.E. (United Kingdom), Sir Beville Stanier, M.P. (British Sugar Beet Growers' Society), Lieut.-Colonel John Studiholme (New v Zealand), and two Canadian representatives are to be co-opted by the committee. For the purposes of representation, New, Zealand <iay elect ten delegates to the council, and Fiji two. The United Kingdom will elect twelve delegates, Canada twelve, Australia twelve, South Africa and Rhodesia twelve, and other parts of the Empire numbers according to their size and importance. The Policy. The chief points in the policy laid down for the Agricultural Council are: To advocate Imperial preference as an essential part of an Empire agricultural policy; to advocate the co-opera-tion of Home, Dominion, and colonial '.Governments far the acceleration and development of inter-Empire shipping, cable, wireless and postal communications, to advocate the furtherance and maintenance of cheap freights within the Empire by means of such inducements as may be found necessary ; to advocate a uniform system of weights and measures throughout the Empire; to advocate a parity of exchange throughout the Empire: to advocate uniformity ; of agricultural statistics throughout the Empire; to encourage any well organised movement toward the simultaneous erection and maintenance of meteorological stations at the most accessible and important points within the Empire, especially on the- Antarctic coastline, from whence, By means of wireless communications, reports of meteorological and physical conditions could- be sent to the existing meteorological centres. Duties of the Council. Amongst the . duties of the' Council are the furtherance of the above policy by all suitable means, the object being to make the Empire and its constituent parts self-supporting; the collection and dissemination of Ehnpire, Agricultural Statistics; the carrying on of a continuous study of- the effects of existing preferences within the Empire; the constitution of a permanent Bureau of Infor-' mation to which application may 'be made on.matters of agricultural interest. - . _ ~ A conference is to take place in 1923, and subsequent conferences are to be ; held at such intervals not exceeding; three years, as the Executive Committee with tne approval of the Agricultural Council may determine. Voluntary contributions by each ,of the constituent units is to form the basis of the, financial side of the Council's work.. The provisional committee wish.it,to be understood that the Constitution as published is not a rigid instrument, but is a setting forth categorically of the principles upon which the work of the Agricultural Council is to be founded and the general method by which the work is to be carried out. The details of that method and such questions, as those of staff, the precise method of financing the work and the names by which its- activities shall be called, are still open to the suggestion and the comment of those who are actively interested in Empire Agriculture and the work of the proposed Agricultural Coun-' i cil- " I M. de Lalyman, the Frenchman who is said to b e able to remain under water long enough to shave hiinself, peel and eat a potato, and drink wine, has apparently brought the art of breath control to a fine point. How long he remains under tne water is not 6tated, but if he stays there longer than ton minutes lie has certainly broken the breath-holding record. That belongs—,or belonged—to a student of the Medi'„cal School of California University, "who, in July, 1915, voluntarily held his breath for 10 minutes 10 seconds. He i was 'under observation the whole time, | and his breathing organs connected with a kymograph, which would havte recorded the slightest inspiration,-of which there j was not the least.indication.