10 



5. No fines should be imposed ■with regard to fungi and apple 

 root-borer as long as it can be shown that means have been used 

 at the proper time for their eradication. 



Fines should not be enforced in regard to insect pests arising 

 from native trees so long as the regulations are being complied 

 with as regards spraying. To assist the Department of Agri- 

 culture in giving efEect to the Act, local boards of fruit-growers 

 should be formed in each district, and an inspector appointed 

 under the supervision of the board. All regulations should be 

 submitted for approval of a central board, composed of one mem- 

 ber from each district, and no fruit trees should be destroyed 

 except with the advice of the central board. 



Mr. F. Shaw, G-oornong Fruit and Wine-growers' Associa- 

 tion, read the following paper on "Whether Legislation is Prema- 

 ture to check Insect Pests " : — 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, 



1st. On insects, their cause and remedy, it is premature to 

 legislate. 



2nd. Means should be employed for instructing fruit-growers 

 how to keep insects in check. 



Legislation to be eSective will have to be locally guided by the 

 different conditions of the destructive insects to be dealt with. 



Take the most destructive of insects, the locust, their eggs are 

 hatched in the spring in the north and north-west. To compel 

 the land-owners there, by legislation, to destroy the eggs, would 

 mean an unjust tax on them for our benefit. 



In my neighbourhood they have only hatched once since about 

 the year 1868 to come to maturity. The last flight of locusts we 

 had laid their eggs all over the Campaspe Valley, where they re- 

 mained in the ground till the autumn rains. They hatched with 

 the moist heat in the day and were destroyed by the low tempera- 

 ture at night. While the locusts fly south, many of our butterflies 

 and moths fly north to propagate. 



The vine-moth has increased each season. 



For some years I have had all the caterpillars destroyed in my 

 vineyard, and yet the second brood this season was the most pro- 

 lific, and we have killed as many as 135 on a year-old vine. 



Take what Mr. French calls the " Rutherglen pest or wood- 

 beetle," it first comes from decayed wood or vegetable matter; 

 you will see them on an old camping ground which grew thistles. 

 They come out of an evening, some days before flight to the air, 

 as thick as ants. If local, they can be easily scalded; when 

 allowed to swarm they distribute themselves all over the vineyard 



