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The chairman suggested the question whether we had been 

 growing the right kinds and on the right principles. 'No doubt 

 we had made mistakes in the past in growing wrong kinds, 

 especially for export. He was sorry to find from the chair- 

 man's remai'ks that the export of fruit had fallen ofi so much. 

 One reason was that the apple crop had been a partial failure in 

 the colony this year, and he believed that unless we took some 

 steps within a very short time to exterminate the codlin moth 

 it would be a long time before we could export apples as they 

 were now doing from Tasmania. By the s.s. 1:1 assilia, •which 

 left on Saturday, Tasmania was sending 22,000 cases of fruit. 

 Some previous steamers took 10,000 to 20,000, and the steamer 

 leaving to-morrow would take 16,000, all from Tasmania. With 

 our immense acreage — he believed we had a larger acreage of 

 fruit than they had in Tasmania^ — he did not see why we should 

 not export fruit the same as they did. He was aware that the 

 Codlin Moth Act in Tasmania had been to a great extent a 

 failure, but still the people had taken private as well as united 

 action in dealing with the pest irrespective of what the Act of 

 Parliament directed them to do. Mr. Farquharson in his paper 

 recommended that in case of all diseased plants the tree should be 

 destroyed. He (Mr. Harris) did not agree with that. They 

 would need to be very bad indeed before he would apply such a 

 remedy as that. Mr. Shaw had given a very interesting paper, 

 and pointed out that the pear slug and cherry slug had spread 

 very rapidly. They could all corroborate that. Mr. Shaw had 

 said that all the pests should be included in the Bill for which 

 antidotes were known, and he gave the opinion that no remedy 

 had been found for the apple borer. He (Mr. Harris) was sorry 

 to hear that. He had thought there was some remedy, but, as 

 with the phylloxera, they might lessen its ravages even if they 

 could not cure the disease. He did not agree that the export of 

 orange and lemon trees from New South Wales should be pre- 

 vented. ^ We could not propagate them here profitably. After 

 30 years' experience as a nurseryman, he said, without hesitation, 

 that we could not propagate them in Victoria as well as in New 

 South Wales. He had found very few diseased oranges and 

 lemons coming from New South Wales. He thought that 

 diseased trees were the exception. He agreed as to the 

 dividing of the colony into districts, each district to send 

 three representatives to a central board. He thought the 

 best plan now would be for the Secretary to read the clauses of 

 the Bill seriatim, and for the Conference to go into committee and 

 deal with the Bill clause by clause. Then, if the majority agreed 

 to certain lines of action, Members of Parliament would be fortified 

 by that opinion and would be very glad to pass a measure of this 



