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first thing to do was to submit the motion he had suggested. If 

 that motion was carried the Conference could go into committee 

 to discuss the matter, and come to the Minister with a tangible 

 scheme. In justice to himself and other speakers, he felt bound to 

 say that he gave the Board of Viticulture credit for the best inten- 

 tions, and he laid stress upon that point. It was not the individuals 

 it was the system that had no power, and no legislation had been 

 introduced since the Board was created to give effect to the wishes 

 of the vine-growers. He could not say anything plainer than that. 

 He also said distinctly they were a nominee Board; they com- 

 prised the Presidents of the various Associations, and they were 

 nominated by the Government. They were never elected, and he 

 would challenge any one to say they were anything else but a 

 nominee Board. It was not their fault that the Board had been 

 & nonentity, but still it was one. What they had to do to-day 

 was to resolve to do something, not to work on parochial lines but 

 on broad lines, that would realize some advantage in the future. 

 They did not want to waste time in discussing petty things. 

 They did not want to divide the colony into too many districts, 

 but it must be divided into a certain number. If the Board was 

 constituted an elective Board with the same constitution as it had 

 to-day, every petty little Association would want to have a repre- 

 sentative, and the number would soon swell to 20 or 30. They 

 would get no proper representation in that way. They must map 

 the colony out into districts, and the Department must decide what 

 were the best districts, and subm't the divisions to the Minister. 

 He had listened with great interest to Mr. West's scheme, which he 

 believed was based to a certain extent on the Californian scheme, 

 and he thought that out of the various suggestions made, the Con- 

 ference could evolve a scheme which the Minister would receive 

 ■with pleasure, and which would induce him to do something in 

 the interests of this great industry. It was an industry which 

 promised more for the prosperity of Australia than any industry 

 they had hitherto touched. As to allowing representation 

 according to acreage, he thought that was only a matter of com- 

 mon justice to those districts which by their enterprise had caused 

 the" industry to progress. A district with only 500 acres under 

 vines had no right to equal representation on the Board with a 

 district with 10,000 acres. In his opinion, the interests of a large 

 district having four .members should outweigh the interests of 

 three or four small districts having one member each, and not 

 one-fourth of the acreage. He begged to move the following 

 resolution : — 



"That this Conference of wine-growers approve and, request the Honor- 

 able the Minister of Agriculture to take immediate steps on the assembling, 

 of Parliament to establish an honorary elective Board of Viticulture and 

 Phylloxera." . . . ^ 



