AGRICULTURAL CONFERENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12001, 25 June 1902, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL CONFERENCE.

[BY TELEGRAPH. PRESS ASSOCIATION-j Dunedin, Tuesday. The New Zealand Agricultural Conference opened this morning, under the presidency of Mr. John Roberts. Resolutions were carried urging the providing of special trains for carriage of stock to and from shows; that more rolling stock be provided,, for agricultural produce and live stock'; that the Minister be asked to grant free passes to certified judges, and the Union Company be asked for 10 per cent, rebate, the same as commercial travellers; that the Government's attention be called to the anomaly in regard to the rates for the transmission of stud stock; that the Union Company be asked to reduce the freights on stock; that a reduction be made on the railage of sheep to and from the market; that the Railway Department be requested to weigh trucks oftener, and furnish a copy of the weights both to consignees and consignor; tna£ v it is desirable the Minister for Railways should be approached with the view of getting drainpipes put on the same basis as lime as to freights; that the Government be urged to encourage farmers to erect private grain sheds at country railway stations by charging only maintenance of siding and five per cent, interest on cost of siding, such interest charge to include sinking fund; that the Government veterinary surgeon be more liberally paid ; that the conference urge the Government to prevent the sale by auction or otherwise of unsound bulls; that the conference views with alarm the increase of rabbits in certain districts of the colony, and considers that more stringent methods should be employed where rabbits are on the increase; that in the opinion of the Conference some of the methods employed in certain parts of the colony are more likely to increase rather than exterminate the pest. Mr. J. D. Ritchie, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, brought up the draft of a Bill providing for the taxing and inspection of stallions, and invited suggestions. In the evening the question of the sheep tax was discussed, when it was resolved to ask the Government to abolish the sheep tax, and to establish in its place a stock tax. A long discussion took place on the Auctioneers Act Amendment Bill, and resulted in a motion to adopt the Bill being rejected. It was resolved that the Government be asked to grant a bonus to anyone inventing or discovering a cheap method of destroying noxious weeds further, that the clauses of the Noxious Weeds Act be more rigorously enforced.