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Pastures and Stock Board meeting for ordinary business, and consequently the Boards would receive one 

 fee. Another thing would be that the Stock Inspector could act as the Babbit Inspector without any 

 further remuneration. With regard to this Government proposition, that there should be two members put 

 on to this Board by the Crown, he might say, as i'ar as his experience was concerned, that he most strongly 

 objected to it. They were in a peculiar position. These Boards could make them kill the rabbits (under the 

 new Bill), and if they did not, they were liable to be had up before the Magistrate, and in default of distress 

 scut to gaol. There was not a single acre in his district of Jerilderie under control of the Crown. It 

 was all alienated in some form or other it had all been inadcMiito freehold, or had all been let ; and there- 

 fore he thought it was a great injustice to say that the Minister could come in and appoint two people on 

 a Board which would tax them and which would exercise these powers over them. He thought he could 

 congratulate the Minister upon having given them the most complete example of taxation without 

 representation that he had ever heard of. These gentlemen who would they be ? He was told that one 

 would be the Chairman of the Land Board. Now really, although ho was comparatively a new chum in 

 this Colony, it was not to bo thought that the Chairman of the Local Land Board could come and attend 

 the Board. No ; these Government nominees would bo the friends either of a Member of Parliament, 

 or the friends of a defeated candidate. They would come and say, " So and so did mo a good turn last 

 time ; you put him on the Eabbit Board." They would be either the friends of a Member or else some 

 local busybody, who would probably be very unpalatable to the rest of the Board. Now, apart from this 

 proposition that the Minister should put these two men on, ho did not give them any guarantee that he 

 was going to kill the rabbits at all. The Minister proposed to tax them to kill their rabbits, but carefully 

 prevented himself being taxed in any way. He would ask them to refer to one of the last clauses in the 

 Bill, clause 32 reading, " It shall be the duty of the Minister to check, suppress, and destroy all rabbits 

 which may from time to time be in or upon public lauds, but such duty shall not commence until a 

 reasonable period after moneys have been made available by Parliament for the purpose, &c., &c." In 

 this Colony now, they were in a very critical state in regard to the finances. It was very important to the 

 Government to have a surplus at the next budget ; and could they tell him that the Government would go 

 and put a large sum of money on the estimates, and risk that surplus, in order to kill the rabbits on the 

 Crown lauds ? Of course he had no right to speak for any other Board than his own, but they thought 

 very strongly indeed upon these two representatives being placed upon the Board. He reiterated that 

 his amendment would be conducive to efficiency and economy in the administration of the Act. 



Mr. BAYLIS (Narrandera) seconded the amendment submitted by the Honorable Eupert 

 C'arington most strongly. He held that the Pastures and Stock Boards were the proper Boards to deal 

 with the rabbit question. They were elected by the stockowuers, the people who were most affected bv 

 the rabbit pest. They had heard a lot of talk about the small owners not being properly represented, and 

 the Minister even yesterday had alluded to it, and said that in his opinion the Pastures and Stock Boards 

 were not the proper Boards to deal with this question. He held that in four-fifths of the districts of the 

 Colony the small stoc-k owners, if they only took it into their heads to do so, could actually swamp the 

 Pastures and Stock Boards at the election. He himself was only a small member he had only 

 CIO acres of land ; but he had been elected for the last nine years on the Stock Board. He knew of others 

 who were in the same position, and he would again strongly urge that the Pastures and Stock Boards 

 were the proper bodies to deal with the rabbit pest. 



Mr. FLAXAQAN (Gunbar), said that was not the question before the Conference ; the question was 

 the boundaries of the rabbit district. 



The Chairman then explained to Mr. Flanagan the business before the Conference. 



Mr. FLANAOAX (Gunbar), said he supported the Honourable Rupert Carington's motion. 



Mr. LAURENCE (Balranald) also supported the motion. In his district the Stock Board consisted 

 of four homestead lessees, and anybody was at liberty and welcome to come forward for the position. 



Mr. OAKDEX (Cobar) said he had great pleasure in supporting the amendment. It was practically 

 identical with one which he had intended to move. Without going over the arguments that had been 

 already adduced by the previous speakers, he thought they should consider another point which had 

 been referred to, at an earlier portion of the debate, and that was regarding the amalgamation of the 

 Boards. Either the Eabbit Board should absorb the Pastures and Stock Protection Boards and Sheep 

 Boards, or vice versa. This all pointed to the necessity that was felt for amalgamation, and it seemed to 

 him that in the interim before the amalgamation of the Pastures and Stock Protection Act and the 

 Kabbit Act, the Pastures and Stock Protection Board was the one which should administer the Eabbit 

 Act temporarily, and ho thought that this Conference should unite in asking the Minister that, pending 

 the introduction of a Consolidation Act, which it would urge him to bring forward dealing with the 

 various Acts affecting the stockowners, that the Pastures and Stock Boards should administer until this 

 Consolidated Act was brought in, creating a Board to deal with the whole of the matters affecting stock 

 in the Colony. He thought that if they took up that position, it would at once commend itself to the 

 Minister and to Parliament. Ho ventured to support the Honorable Eupert Carington, and to bring 

 forward these arguments in his favour outside the arguments already expressed. 



Mr. DAVIDSON (Condobolin) mentioned that in his district the Stock Board consisted of one wool 

 scourer and two selectors. 



Mr. BKETT (Tirana) said that since the Pastures and Stock Act had been in force, it had been 

 carried out without a hitch. With reference to the small owners not being represented on the Board, he 

 said that a small holder had been Chairman of the Board in his district for four years. He thought 

 where the Act had been administered for so long, where they had the whole of the machinery in hand, 

 and where there would be no outlay at all in getting machinery to work the Act, they should certainly 

 place the administration of the Eabbit Act in the hands of the Pastures and Stock Protection Board. He 

 supported the amendment. 



Mr. M'CoLLOUGit (Deuiliquin) said lie had been a member of a Board for over seventeen years, 

 and had always got on without the slightest trouble with the sheep-owners. He thought the Stock and 

 Pastures Protection Board deserved the confidence of the Conference. 



Mr. LESLIE (Forbes) had very much pleasure in supporting the motion before the Chairman, and 

 said that if anything were wanted to combat the arguments which had been used to the effect that the 

 Stock and Pastures Board were not representative he would like to quote the Pastures and Stock 

 Protection Act. It had been urged in the Conference that the Pastures and Stock Boards were not 



representative. 



