41 



had been adopted by the Government ; they had tried all the 

 infallible cures that had been brought forward by different persons, 

 and nothing further could have been done in a dry season like the" 

 last, following the wettest season they had ever had in the dis- 

 trict. The ground, after being very wet in the winter, was in the 

 summer baked almost to cement by the heat; the men who had to- 

 uproot the vines had to use picks and shovels, and nothino' more 

 could haye been done. If the Government decided on a general 

 uprooting of those vineyards, now would be the best time to 

 start. He himself believed that the only cure was the thorough 

 eradication of the affected vineyards. He had hopes that 

 phylloxera would soon disappear from the colony and never 

 return. 



Mr. Buckley (Rutherglen) read the following paper on the 

 *' Government Proposals for the Development of the Vine-growing- 

 industry ": — 



The Government proposals for promoting the development of 

 the wine- growing industry, as foreshadowed in Mr. Martin's able 

 memorandum, which appeared in the metropolitan journals of the 

 5th August last, embodied two leading principles, viz. — (1) The 

 payment of an export bonus on wine and brandy, and (2) the pay- 

 ment of a bonus on the cost of the necessary plant and buildings 

 erected as wineries and brandy distilleries in vine-growing centres ; 

 and, although the former was abandoned in the regulations 

 subsequently issued, it should be recollected that it was the most 

 promising, and should have been made the principal, and indeed, 

 the indispensable feature of the famous bonus proposals of Mr. 

 Dow in 1889. Unfortunately, the Ministry in ofSce at the time,, 

 while deserving every credit for a desire to encourage the viticul- 

 tural industry, lacked that absolute essential in carrying such 

 proposals through Parliament, viz., a stable backbone ; and weakly 

 consented to the passing of the planting bonus, which, by itself, 

 was a positive evil, and to the rejection of the much more 

 important bonus for the establishment of exporting companies- 

 and the extension of our foreign trade in wines. The inevitable 

 result was that production was unduly stimulated and increased 

 at an enormous rate without any market being provided for the 

 augmented output. Had both bonuses received the sanction of 

 Parliament, or, better still, had the positions been reversed, and 

 the export bonus only been passed, there would have been ample 

 time during the four or five years that must elapse before the 

 newly-planted vineyards could come into bearing to permit of 

 exporting companies being established on a firm footing, and 

 securing such an extensive business connexion as would enable 

 them to dispose readily of the increased produce of the future. 



