BEEKEEPERS' CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 138, 11 June 1920, Page 7

BEEKEEPERS' CONFERENCE

THE 1 RAVAGES OF FOUL BROOD.

(11l TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

CHRISTCHURCH, 10th June.

The Beekeepers' Conference to-day passed a, resolution : "That the Apiaries Act, as at present administered, has' not accomplished the primary object for which it was placed upon the Statute Book. It is certain that foul brood, the scourge that costs the beekeeping' industry thousands of pounds in an attempt to combat it, is rapidly on the increase, due in a large measure to the understaffing of the Department which has to administer the Act. The annual Io6S in capital and production due to the ravages of this disease runs into many thousands of pounds. This conference submits that, in view of the necessity for increased production, the loss'mentioned is a national one, and all reasonable means must be taken to stop theloss. We .submit, nay, more, we demand as a right, that the provisions of the Apiaries Act shall be immediately put into force; that a chief apiaries instructor be appointed whose duty shall be to -see that the Act is carried out; that a sufficient number of field offiWs be appointed to assist him in carrying out his duties, and that the Sole duties of these field officers shall be the elimination of the disease in the district to which they are appointed." " Conference also decided to request the Government to placo an annual tax of £1 on each person keeping bees in the Dominion, such tax to be used in the payment of additional inspectors for the prevention of foul brood and for Departmental and instructional purposes.

(The cable news in this issue accredited to "The Times" has appeared in that journal, but only whore expressly atatsd Is bucU mwi mo tditorltl cp.taioa o( "The Timei.T