46 



Mr. Cbaike (Geelong) said that when the phylloxera was at 

 Geelong they had no sympathy from the people at Eutherglen, 

 who thought it would be stamped out, and that there would be 

 no more trouble. He thought there was an analogy between 

 pleuro and phylloxera, because the Grovernment had to attend to 

 the stamping out of both. The British Government, in dealing 

 with rinderpest, never thought of taking a man's property and 

 killing it and burying it without paying him ; they gave him 

 two-thirds of the value of the cattle, and the disease was com- 

 pletely stamped out. He disagreed with Mr. De Castella that 

 phylloxera would never be stamped out, because it had been 

 stamped out of. Geelong ; he was afraid that the mistakes made 

 there were being repeated at Bendigo. The first mistake made 

 at Geelong was taking out only the diseased vineyards, the result 

 being repeated outbreaks of the disease, and experience there 

 pointed to the fact that all vineyards within two miles of a 

 diseased district became infected. He had no confidence in the 

 way the inspection was being carried out. He thought there 

 should be a thorough inspection of all the vineyards in the colony. 

 His impression was that the disease came, as in the Geelong case, 

 through a nursery. He was sure Mr. Hopton was thoroughly 

 competent J but it was too much work for one man. Eutherglen 

 had not been inspected, and he thought that the most dangerous 

 district in the colony. At Bendigo he thought the vines should 

 be taken out at once, including all vineyards in the Emu Creek. 

 The new Phylloxera Board had not held a single meeting since 

 it had been gazetted, the chairman having been engaged on the 

 Tariff Board. He thought that it should be called together at 

 once, and the matter immediately dealt with. If the vines were 

 taken out compensation must be paid according to the Act. The 

 difficulty would be as to those at a distance of one or two miles. 

 It would be very ruinous to the rest of the colony if the Bendigo 

 people were allowed to do what they liked. There were 24,000 

 acres of vines altogether, 18,000 of them being newly planted, 

 so that the relation of the Emu Creek district to the rest of the 

 colony was a mere flea-bite, and the expense should not stand in 

 the way. He thought a certain tax should be put on the vine- 

 yards as a sinking fund to meet the cases, supplemented by a 

 Government grant. He had advocated the same course at Geelong 

 and if it had been carried out there would now be a fund sufficient 

 to pay all compensation claims. He thought the general taxpayer 

 should not be called upon in the matter. He thought it would be 

 folly to pass an Act that fruit cases should be only used once. The 

 risk from phylloxera had been reduced to nothing. The nature 

 of the insect was to lay the eggs on the leaf, not in the case. 



Mr. FuANgois de Castella (Kyabram) thought the Conference 

 should adopt some definite policy as to phylloxera. He quite 



