m 



yield about 4,000 vines. They could be sown during the months 

 of September next, and by this time next year a'man would. have 

 tens of thousands of resistant stocks at a cost of less than a £5 

 note. What they wanted was intelligent direction and instruction 

 distributed throughout the country as to those matters, and that 

 was about all the G-overnment should be asked to do. They 

 should help people to help themselves, but not go further and 

 adopt spoon-feeding from the cradle to the grave, as they were 

 doing to-day in Victoria. The question of compensation opened 

 up a serious difficulty, and leading statesmen would not dare to 

 take it up on the lines of compensating to the full extent^ in view 

 .of the present state of the finances of the colony. During the last 

 two years the colony had been drifting hopelessly on the road to 

 insolvency; they, had accumulated a deficiency of over two 

 millions, and in June next they would have to face another deficit 

 ■of £300,000, .And the reason was that every section of the com- 

 munity came forward to dip in the lucky bag of the Government. 

 Was it going to last for ever, and so destroy the self-respect of 

 ■ joung Australia? If they were going to compensate for the 

 ■destroyed vineyards, it must come manfully off their own shoulders. 

 They must say — " It is a national danger to us, and we shall not 

 ask the overburdened taxpayer to find the money, but do it our- 

 selves." When they have done that and given the greatest 

 possible evidence that they were in earnest, they would take good 

 eare that the same disastrous blunders should not he perpetrated 

 again, as was done at Geelong, There was a total of 281 acres 

 infected there, and it cost no less than £30,000 to eradicate the 

 phylloxera from them ; and they were now as bad as ever with 

 phylloxera again in another district — they might pay another 

 .£30,000 to Bendigo, and in five years have to begin again at 

 ©utherglen, and so it would go on. The time would 'Come when 

 ■the 1 intelligent men of this country must take a stand on this 

 question, and fearlessly say that they would not come to the 

 fiovemment in every case of this kind, but would loyally help 

 themselves. 



Mr. Hans Ievine said that the grounds of Mr. West's remarks 

 were totally wrong. He (Mr. Irvine) had Stated distinctly in his 

 paper that such schools might be readily made self-supporting, 

 and resistant stock made available. He never intended that the 

 vine-growers should obtain their stocks gratis. 



Mr. West said he contended that Mr. Irvine had placed the 

 burden of finding the resistant stocks on the, Government. 



Mr. Ievine asked how many wine-growers were in a position 

 to propagate from seed and to graft on those without knowledge. 

 Very few men had the practical knowledge of the, nurserymen or 

 yignerons in the old country. The ordinary vigneron hardly 

 knew how to make a seed germinate. He had given, Mr. French 



6313. D 



