1.—12

XI

situate near or on an experimental farm. The question of research-work is allimportant, and the school should be provided with the necessary facilities, the apparatus, and the best available instructors. A Mutual Scheme. Your Committee feels assured of the active co-operation of those engaged in controlling the dairying business, and it is hoped that a mutual scheme may be evolved whereby those so engaged could co-operate with the Government in management and control, even to the extent of contributing towards the cost of establishment or equipment. Butter-fat Price-equalization Fund. Your Committee has taken evidence in connection with the present method of providing butter for local consumption below the market price for export, and is of opinion that the system of reducing the price locally, as at present in vogue, is not sound, inasmuch as it only applies to one industry, and that it will assuredly bring about a decreased output of butter owing to farmers taking up the more profitable production of cheese, dried milk, &c. The present f.o.b. price for export is 181s. per hundredweight, or about Is. per pound, and the local rate at the factory Is. sd. per pound, the difference being a charge on the butter-producer, amounting to nearly £300,000 per annum. The allowance of 3d. per pound between the price paid to the producer and that charged to the consumer is too great, and a better system of distribution should be arranged. Some retailers are now selling butter at Is. 7d. per pound, or Id. below the scheduled rate. Your Committee is of opinion that the Government is bound to see that the retail price of this important article of diet is kept within reasonable limits, but that any reduction in the price paid to the producer should be made a charge on the Consolidated Eund. Noxious Weeds. This subject was brought forcibly under the notice of your Committee, and it was shown that a serious and growing evil exists, menacing the future of the farming industry in many localities ; and, further, that the present system of dealing with the trouble is largely ineffective. It may be said at once that blackberry is one of the most troublesome and. formidable of all weeds. One witness declared that he considered there was no less than 300,000 acres of land, chiefly in North Taranaki, infested with this weed. " Out of that 300,000 acres," he said, " there is no less than 5 per cent, that has become totally unprofitable, covered by blackberry, and not a blade of grass growing underneath." On the west coast of the South Island your Committee had ocular demonstration of the immensity of this evil. Your Committee recognizes that harsh legislation would press very hardly upon many landholders, and that in some localities it is almost impossible to eradicate weed pests. Nevertheless, the demand is imperative for legislation which shall have for its object the prevention of the spread of the evil and the protection of those districts in which the spread has not been so great. Recommendation. The Committee recommends, in view of present-day conditions, that the Noxious Weeds Act be amended so as to cope with the pest and prevent the still further spread of weeds. Such legislation should include provision for any district to be declared a " weed district," in which it shall be an offence to permit the seeding of specified noxious weeds ; settlers to have the right of appeal against inclusion in such district.