NATIONAL DAIRY ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2103, 14 June 1894, Page 12

NATIONAL DAIRY ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND.

The annual meeting of the National Dairy Association of New Zealand was held in the office of the association, Water street, on Thursday. Mr John Stevenson, president of the association, occupied the chair, and there were 22 membefs present. ANNUAL KEPORT. The annual report, which has already been published, was taken as read. The , Chairman then said : Gentlemen,— As the report laid before you deals most fully with the various matters connected with the dairy industry, there is no need for me to say much. I have, however, to congratulate you on the increased power and usefulness of this association, particularly in Ofcago and Southland, and I hope our membership in the North Island will increase. I have reason to believe that both there and in Canterbury the benefits provided to all by the unity of action— auoh as provided by our association— are now being appreciated, and that we shall have as good I support in those parts as here in the south. We intend to provide in Wellington, Lyttelton, and Auckland the same facilities for shipment and other association work by the appointment of active secretaries as here, all being under tha direct management of this association, with assistance from boards of advice in the other districts as may be thought advisable. You will no doubt have noticed that most of the recommendations of this association, as shown in the report before you, have been generally approved by the Agricultural Conference held in Wellington last week. The Government, and especially the Minister for Lands, is deeply interested in the welfare of the dairy industry, and has always given this association help and encouragement, and I have no doubt will continue to do so when it can be shown it will be a benefit to the dairy farmers generally. At the beginning of last season your committee arranged with the New Zealand Shipping Company to carry the whole of this association's produce, which has been satisfactorily carried out. We also applied for a reduction in freight, which was granted by taking \d off the butter. I am pleased to say that your committee have arranged with two of the shipping companies for regular fortnightly shipments of butter and cheese for this coming season, -which will benefit all members north and south. Your committee, acting on the resolution passed by you at last annual meeting, gave our secretary a bonus of £25, and increased his salary to £150, he paying office rent. The oommitteo do not see their way to pay a secretary to devote his time exclusively to the business of this association. You will remember at our last annual meeting we handed over the cup sent out by Messrs M 'Nairn to the Otago A. and P. Association, the outcome of which is a grand winter show, and they are entitled to our best thanks for the way they have moved in the matter, &pd I trust that this association will at all times work in harmony with them in anything that will further the interests of the farmers of New Zealand. The order paper will provide food for discussion. Any member may bring forward any motion for discussion at this meeting. Each factory or member will have one vote. Mr Cuddie is the retiring member of committee, and is eligible and offers himself for re-election. You have also to elect a member of committee in place of Mr Birch, who has left the district. The balance sheet is before you. Tho expenditure has been carefully looked after ; tho extension of tho business of the association and keeping the association together has involved considerable travelling expenses. With your permission I will take the balance sheet as read, and will now move the adoption of the report and balance sheet.

Mr John Duncan, Jun., seconded the motion. In doing so he said it seemed from the report that the dairy industry could only make progress by holding on to the Government. He was very sorry to Bee such an impression conveyed by the report. The industry had so far got on without any practical assistance from the Government. He had been for some years intimately connected with the industry, and he thought the Government owed more to the industry than the industry owed to the Government. He hoped the association would be modest in their demands upon the Government. Let them set an example to the colony and show that there was some industry that could get on without Government assistance. In referring to the letter of the secretary of the association embodied in the report, the speaker said it contained a number of elaborate suggestions how to do very little. The committee and secretary had done some practical work, but he could not congratulate the secretary upon his letter. As to the report itself, it dropped into a lot of fault-finding which seemed to be invariable in the annual reports. He hoped the secretary would see his way to suppress this fault-finding in the future. The report took a very melancholy outlook of the dairy industry, but he thought; the outlook was hopeful for them all, if they did not try to do too much all at once.

The motion for the adoption of the report was then put; and carried.

ELECTrON OF OFFICERS. Mr John Stevenson was re-elected president of the association for the ensuing year 1 . Mr R. Cuddie was reelected a member of the committee, and Mr James Steven was elected on the committee in the place of Mr Birch.

Messrs Angus, Cuehnie, Cuddie, Steven, Robbins, and Stevenson were appointed a committee to consider the Dairy Act and suggest amendments and improvements to a future meeting. The meeting then adjourned till 7 p.m.