25 



reasonably we should endeavour to avoid. I am quite in sympathy with the views which have been so 

 freely expressed in this country, that to a large extent we are over-governed and that we have too many 

 Boards in existence; and if I can by any means, as the outcome of this Conference, take some existing 

 body and make it do the work that has to be done under this Bill, I should consider it a very great step 

 gained ; and, therefore, if it is possible to have a separate Bill making use of existing bodies, I should be 

 one to grasp the situation and make use of those bodies ; but if they have defects in their constitutions 

 you are not likely to have those defects overlooked in Parliament. I do not know a Pastures and Stock 

 Board from Adam I never met a Board, and I know very little of its operations; so that I can have 

 no preconceived opposition to them none whatever. I believe they are very good Boards, and if they can be 

 made use of, so much the better. But you all want to pass a liabbit Bill ; you do not want to have a Bill 

 drafted which will look very well here but will never get through all the obstacles of Parliament. You want to 

 have that Bill, after it leaves here, drafted into the Statute Book of the Colony. It is only an act of kindness 

 to point out to you objections that Parliament may take and which I cannot overcome. No matter how 

 much I may wish to place the sole control of that measure under the Stock Protection Board, I tell you 

 candidly I do not think I eould pass the Bill. It is no use misleading you ; it is no use my coming back 

 in twelve months' time to tell you I have failed. The small men in the community have a very large say 

 in the election of representatives to Parliament, and their members count more than the members of the 

 large men at the ballot-box. These small men have representatives in Parliament who will take up the 

 cudgels on their behalf, and you. may be sure of very strong opposition in Parliament to handing over the 

 control to the body in which the so-called small men have not adequate representation. The difficulty 

 you have got to overcome is to make the Stock Protection Board of such a character that it will be 

 thoroughly representative of the large and small interests involved ; and it means this that if the present 

 constitution of those Stock Boards does not give adequate representation to the smaller holders in the 

 country, you will have to propose such amendments in the constitution as will give them a fair voice in 

 the election of Stock Protection Board members, and a fair voice in the management of the work. Then, 

 in addition to that, I know there is a proposal to enlarge the franchise. You must go further than merely 

 enlarging the franchise ; you must do it on a different basis altogether. There are men who have no 

 stock at all, who are not engaged in stock-raising perhaps they may have a few draught horses or 

 bullocks for ploughing men engaged in agriculture, who are injured by the depredations of rabbits, and 

 who necessarily have to make some protection for themselves against the inroads by the rabbits. It seems 

 to me that these men are largely affected by rabbit legislation, and they are entitled in a measure which 

 will impose taxation upon them to representation, because I cannot say that a measure will be a good 

 one that allows any class to be taxed without representation. Therefore, if a man who has got 2,000 

 acres under wheat is taxed, you must be prepared to concede to him some voice in the representation. 

 I do not think there ought to be any difficulty iu this matter. I do not see that there should be any 

 difficulty at all, but you ought to be prepared to enlarge the basis of election of the Stock Protection 

 Board so as to take in all those whom you propose to tax and those whom you propose to benefit. There- 

 fore, it seems to me that there ought to be some basis ; and if the Conference can arrive at thorough 

 unanimity on this point, you will be doing a distinct public service and you will be justifying your 

 discussion and your deliberations, because we shall have no need then to create a new Board with all the 

 expense of election, but we shall have one Board, already doing good work, made still more useful by 

 enlarging its functions. I hope, therefore, that before you have concluded the consideration of this 

 subject you will have gone into this very difficult question most thoroughly, and that you will have drafted 

 some clauses in this Bill to amend the Stock Protection Board the Diseases in Sheep Act so as to 

 enlarge the election, or mode of election, of the Stock Protection Boards. Now, the next point, and I 

 can see that we are not at variance at all, is with regard to the obligation of the Crown to perform its 

 work on the Crown lands. I regret, indeed, to see that some gentleman said yesterday that he could 

 state, almost with authority, that the Government had no intention of dealing with the rabbits on its 

 own land. I presume that my word must be taken for what it is worth. It is not lightly given in 

 these matters. I have never broken a promise which I have made to the people of this country. I state 

 that I am imbued with the knowledge that it is an unfair thing to tax the private holders or occupiers in 

 the community to destroy the pest, and at the same time to allow that pest, without any hindrance at all, to 

 increase and multiply on the Public Estate. Therefore it is incumbent upon the Government to do its fair 

 share of the work, if the work is to be done thoroughly. If the Government is prepared to neglect what it 

 ought to do, it has no right to impose an obligation on private owners to do what the Government will not 

 do. I say we must accept one another's protestations in this matter. You impose an obligation on the 

 Crown, but you cannot vote away a sum of money per annum for the purpose of doing the work ; you 

 must leave that to Parliament, which votes supplies year by year, to vote the amount, which will be at the 

 disposal of the Minister for this work. Therefore I have provided that the Minister shall expend some 

 sum of money for this purpose. So long as I ain in the Ministry, you can always rely that there will be 

 submitted to Parliament a sum of money to be expended on the Public Estate to destroy rabbits. If 

 Parliament refuses to vote any money we must put up with it ; but if the proposal is submitted by those 

 who are in sympathy with you, then I think you will be satisfied with them. In the next place, a hard 

 and fast rule is stated with regard to the rate that ought to be imposed on the Public Estate. I think it 

 is reckoned as carrying a sheep to 10 acres. You must know yourselves that some of the valuable 

 estates which are held by the Crown for commonage, &c., will carry a sheep to an acre, and it will be 

 necessary in these cases for the Crown contribution to be much larger than one sheep to 10 acres, and 

 then there are portions of the country in the far west where it will not carry a sheep to perhaps 40 or 

 50 acres; so that if you impose upon the Crown the duty of contributing by this hard and fast rule, you 

 make the Government contribute too much in one district and too little in another. Take, for instance, 

 the Pillaga Scrub. That country, I suppose, would carry a very poor percentage of sheep compared with 

 the lands we have in reserve in Eiverina; and the simplest way for the Crown to deal with country like 

 that is to fence its own rabbits in, because there is only one holder in the whole of that Pillaga Scrub. 

 I would like to have more. I would like to have twenty, but, unfortunately, we have got very few holders ; 

 but there the rating should be very much less than in the richer country. If you go farther west, to 

 "Wilcaunia and Mount Poole, the rating must be in accordance with the requirements of the country ; so 

 that I think it is better not to have a fixed hard-and-fast rule, but to leave it to the various Stock Boards 

 in the various districts. Let local experience decide this. There are only these two points ; and I 

 32 D thought 



