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rabbits that was good for export. In his district there were tinuing works, and during the winter 

 months there were no rabbits good for that purpose, because the does were heavy in young and were, 

 therefore, not fit for export. He would most heartily support the Honorable Kupert Carington's 

 motion. 



Mr. FLANAGAN (Gunbar) said that the local authorities should see the rabbits were not being kept 

 for commercial purposes in any locality, and when the power was in the hands of any Stock Board it was 

 their duty to see that the rabbits were not kept for commercial purposes, but he thought they were 

 unnecessarily alarmed, and should not prevent a person alongside a railway fetching in an auxiliary to 

 catch rabbits and do the work for him, sending them to Sydney for export and so giving employment to 

 labour. He certainly thought they should not foster the rabbits but the Stock Boards should not interfere 

 with a private individual if he chose to try to make money out of the rabbits he killed. 



Mr. T. BROWN, M.L.A. (Budgerabong), said that this was a most extraordinary development. It 

 seemed to him that some of the members had got so completely hypnotised by the idea that the rabbits 

 were to be destroyed by the llubbit Boards, that they could not conceive of their being destroyed in any 

 other way and turned to some benefit. Now he thought that what Mr. Stevenson had done was simply to 

 show to the Conference how they mi^ht in another way destroy the rabbits. He did not propose that 

 the rabbits should be cultivated for export, he proposed to destroy them and convert them into an article 

 for export. One gentleman announced the extraordinary idea that if they put rabbits on the English 

 market the price of sheep would go down. He did not see if they could turn the rabbits into a profitable 

 product for export, why it could cot be done as well as sending all the skins as they did now. They 

 skinned the rabbits and exported the skins, so long as it was profitable to do so, and why should they not 

 export the rabbits ? If it would interfere with the value of the sheep he would not mind. It would simply 

 be a matter of the survival of the fittest. It seemed to him to be a most extraordinary stand to pass such 

 a resolution as this. lie would propose that Mr. Stevenson be thanked for having given them this 

 address, and he would certainly oppose the Honorable Hupert Carington's resolution. 



Mr. ALISON (Canonbar) said that without reflecting on Mr. Brown in any way, he thought the 

 picnic the previous day must have affected him. He had been getting hold of the wrong ideas altogether. 

 They were there to consider how to eradicate the rabbit and they only wanted to put their disapproval on 

 anything that would continue the rabbit. If they made rabbits an article of export they might continue 

 for ever, and they were there to destroy them root and branch. They had brought in all sorts of resolulions 

 to make everybody destroy the rabbit, and it would not do for them to say that they had a contract with 

 the Meat Company to supply rabbits for export. He agreed with the Honorable Kupert Carington, and 

 thought that if the factories were put up it would create vested interests. Their situation was different to 

 that in Victoria. In Victoria they were not more than 00 miles from a port and never far from a railway. 

 That made it more profitable. The last resolution passed by the Conference was to the effect that the 

 Government be asked to renew the reward for a menus of destruction. It had been stated that the 

 Queensland Government had discovered that they could propagate chicken cholera so effectually as to 

 destroy the rabbits. He supposed that that was the hope of all of them that something of that kind 

 would come about. But seeing the idea was utterly foreign to them he might say that so far as chicken 

 cholera was concerned M. Pasteur found that where he was beaten on that point was purely that the 

 climatic conditions of western New South Wales were fatal to the virus that he was propagating, and 

 that when it had reached a temperature of 110 the virus was destroyed. However, it might be found that 

 a virus could be cultivated that could stand that temperature. 



The Hon. KUPERT CABINGTON ( Jerilderie) then said that he would like to preface his amendment 

 by moving, " That the thanks of the Conference to Mr. Stevenson be accorded for having so kindly 

 ventilated his views on the subject." His paper was very interesting and they thanked him very kindly 

 for the discussion, although they did not agree with him. 



The vote of thanks to Mr. Stevenson was then carried unanimously. 



Mr. STEVENSON said that he must have made himself understood very poorly if he did not convey 

 his meaning that they should use all possible means to stamp out the rabbits, and be had suggested this as 

 one of the means adopted with a considerable measure of success in Victoria. Within a few miles of the 

 railway in Victoria they never see a rabbit. However it was no use to attempt to assist men who would 

 not be assisted, and he could only now have the pleasure of conveying the resolution of the Conference to 

 the Minister, and he had no doubt that the Minister would allow the matter to drop into that obscurity 

 which, perhaps, it should never have been brought from. 



The Hon. KUPEKT CAKINGTON'S (Jerilderie) resolution that it was not advisable that rabbits should 

 be made an article of export was then put and carried. 



Mr. "W. LAWBT moved the following resolutions : 



1. " That if the present Act is efficiently administered, no fresh legislation is either necessary or 



desirable." 



2. " That the only means of effectually dealing with the rabbit pest is to make it worth while for those 



holding lands under various tenures from the Crown to undertake the cost and trouble of 

 destruction." 



3. " That this can best be done by granting such extension of their tenancies, or such other 



concessions as may be considered desirable, as will not only induce them to wire-net their 

 boundaries, but also to subdivide with wire-netting. Freeholders will, in their own interests, 

 take such remedial measures as they consider advisable to protect their property." 



4. "That as the whole Colony is admittedly over-run, the whole Colony should be declared infested, 



and the many salutary provisions of the present Act be thus brought into operation." 



5. " That in the administration of the present Act the Government should give facilities, if possible 



by Regulations thereunder, for neighbouring owners, lessees, or licensees to obtain prompt 

 remedies by legal action against one another for breaches of the Act ; and it should be provided 

 that all Crown lands, in order to prevent the law being a dead letter, should be treated inexactly 

 the same way as those held by private owners." 



6. "That barrier fences having proved to be only temporary expedients no taxation be imposed on 



the sheep farmer for their erection or maintenance." 



7. 



