AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL ASSOCIATION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1200, 1 March 1895, Page 5

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL ASSOCIATION.

The regular meeting- of the Gen'eraf Committee of the Wellington Agricultural and Pastoral Association took place at mid day on Feb. 20; present—Messrs "W. H, Beotham (president), W. Lingard, A. Matthews, F. Bradey, W. H. Millward, F. A. Majendie, W. E. Bidwill, Or. H. Scales, E. J. Riddiford, W. S. Broderick and D. Sladden. . RESIGNATION. Mr W. G. Foster wrote tendering his resignation as a member of the General Committee, and asking for a return of hia promissory note for £ls, as the Association is now in funds. On the motion of Mr Liugard a vote of thanks was passed to Mr Foster, coupled with an expression of regret at the loss of his services. It was also agreed to return the promissory note. '' BALANCE-SHEET. , The secretary (Mr O'CaUaghan) presented an interim statement of receipts and expenditure. It showed a credit balance of £B7 7s lOd. The largest items of receipts were : —Members' subscriptions, ■£23o ; donations and cash prizes (cups, &c.) for last show, £479V entry fees for show and stock sales, .£166; sale of privileges, £80; gate money, £262; entry fees for ram and ewe fair, 1895, .£63. On the expenditure side the largest were: —Bank overdraft in March, 189*., ,£194; printing and advertising, £!??'; prizes, £65; salaries, £121; expenses of conference, .£59; cash prizes for show, ,£327; interest on debentures; ,£53. The I statement of cash assets and liabilities showed a debit balance of £B4>.

Mr Millward thought the balance-sheet showed a decided advance as comparedL with the financial position of the Association last year. At the beginning of theyear the bank overdraft was about iat addition to which there were outstandingliabilities amounting to £l7O or .£IBO. Today they had a credit balance of £B9/, ancL even taking into account their outstandingliabilities, their debit would be only £34„ or just a shade over .£1 for each member of the committee. This was very satisfac?tory considering that during the yearthere had been a special expenditure of JEl24> Mr Lingard agreed with the opinion expressed by Mr Millward, and moved the adoption of the balance-sheet. He , suggested that a railway pass should be procured for the secretary, who. by moving about in the districts might be the means of securing 50 additional memb<2s»sj for the Association. , Mr Bidwill seconded the motion * The balance-sheet showed the Associaik® to be in a far more satisfactory posifckfl* than it had been in since it started* It was now in a stronger position than any, kindred association in the island, and .at the same time it was giving larger prizes than the other associations in the island.

A general discussion ensued,, in the course of which the ret«rn of the guarantors' promissory • notes was considered* Some of the members thought it would be desirable to return the promissory no tea of those guarantors who are,-no longer members of the oommittee. Eventually the matter was left to the executive, and the motion was . passed, unanimously. PRIZK FOB, COTSWOI-D, BAMS. Mr H. F. Davidson claimed, Mr Cook's special priao of J& for the best Cotswold ram of any age at the late show. The difficulty was that no entry\i>as made forthis special class, while Mr Dkavidson was. the only exhibitor of Cotswolds. After discussion, it was agreed that he should be paid the prize. ? A vindication:. Mr Matthews brought before the notice of the committee a report which had got abroad to the effect that the champion Romney ram which he exhibited at the late show had been previously trimmed for the purpose. To this report he gave a most emphatic denial. He added that if the sheep were trimmed on the. second day of the show it must have been maliciously tampered with. Several of the members present expressed sympathy with Mr Matthews, and a resolution was unanimously passed expressing satisfaction mthibis statement, and the conviction of' the committee that, he was incapable of any such conduct as> the renovt appeared to have imputed to. him,

""EEIiLOW" SHEEP. [ Mr Bidwill invited attention to a letter ! from Mr Donald Frasor, which originally appeared in the" Marion M&i'cury, and was re-published in the New Zealand Mail of the Bth February. It stated that what were known as " yellow sheep 5 * were* owing to their yellow* QoAour when; : slaughtered, condemned a& freezers, and were worth only half, Mr. leaser's letteralso quoted a statement of Mr D.Sladder* that most of the "yellow sheep" his Company got were. Bomneys. Mr Bidwill read out the letter, and expressed his opinion that it did a great injustice to Bomney sheep, and .was calculated to entail much, loss upon breeders of this class of sheep. As a matter of fact there had been a lessened demand for Bomneys at ram fairs sinoe Mr Fraser's letter was published, and unless its statements were refuted the Colony would suffer at the July sales in Sydney. As against Mr Fraser's letter he would quote the following which he had received from Mr Millward (secretary of the Gear Meat Co.) .—" The Bomney wether3 and maiden ewes received from you on 31st December were a really grand lot. They killed out well, the colour and everything about them being very satisfactory. My experience does not lead me to think that Bomney sheep, well treated, are in any way inferior in colourto sheep of the Lincoln type under the same conditions. As for directing our buyers to give less for Bomneys than foi* Lincolns, the idea is absurd." He thought Mr Millward's opinion wa3 entitled to great weight, seeing that, his Company froae. Jast year a quarter of a million, ot.

■heep and lambs. As Mr Fraser was a breeder of Lincolns, he Was obviously interested in this matter as against the Romneys. Mr Sladden safd that as secretary of the "Wellington Meat Export Company he anight explain that the letter he had sent to Mr Fraser was written to him as one of the directors of the Company, and without any idea that it was going to be published. As a matter of fact, a very large majority of the sheep rejected by his Company as "yellows" were Eomneys. Of course there were mobs of Eomneys ■which came into the country that ■were perfectly free from that. He understood the experience of Nelson Bros, was similar to that of his Company. The C.I.F. buyer's in London would not bny " yellows/' and Nelson Bros, would not take them either. He was inclined to say that out of 10,000 sheep there would be three times as many Komney "yellows " as "yellows" of any other breed. The Chairman remarked that so very small was the percentage of yellows in a flock of a thousand sheep, say, three in a thousand—no matter what was the breed —that a great deal too much importance liad been made of the matter.

Mr Sladden agreed that Mr Fraser had made a mountain out of a molehill. He had no idea when his letter to Mr Fraser was written that this gentleman was contemplating a crusade against Romneys. Mr Bidwill said that the majority of the "yellows " which he had had rejected were Lincolns or Eomney cross. A far more important thing to guard against in sheep was the complaint know as " grown lung," or diseased or adhesive lung. Mr Millward endorsed this opinion. The question of " yellow sheep" was a very small one indeed, as compared with that of sheep suffering from " grown " or adhesive lung. He would take the opportunity of pointing out to sheep-owners a matter of far more'seriouM moment to them, and one which might vitally affect the frozen meat trade of the Colony. Owing to the demand for lambs for freezing, farmers had been always anxious to get off as many as they could, and in'drafting out their flocks the "tops," or best of those picked out for freezing, we're generally ewe I lambs, as the ewe lambs matured earliest. The consequence was that those left were more or less stunted and inferior lambs, and deterioration of the flock naturally followed. This appeared to be borne out by the fact which he had noticed that the

old ewes which came into the Company's hands for boiling-down were getting gradually lighter and of smaller frames. If New Zealand was to maintain its hold of the frozen meat trade it was absolutely necessary to keep up the standard of the flocks fey breeding from the very best of the ewes. In fact they could not get good lambs unless they had ewes of good frame and quality. Several Of the members present expressed their sense of the importance of Mr Milliard's statement, and thought it very ■valuable, and one that sheep-farmers gene-

rally should take note of.