54 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Juxy, 1901.. 
large organisation. When we start a thing we must have funds, and to get 
funds requires time. Mr. Peek’s idea of having twelve delegates is a good 
one; but why not nominate these delegates here? Why should not the 
Committee of Resolutions bring forward a scheme by which these delegates 
could be nominated here ? We have here members from practically every part 
of Queensland, and from amongst them we could have representatives meeting 
again in a few months, provided the different societies joined together and were 
willing to subscribe the two guineas apiece that has been suggested. Mr. Peek _ 
mentioned thirty as a minimum. I hope there will be more than thirty, but 
thirty would give us sixty guineas. Then, if the Government would furnish | 
railway passes, the amount of delegates’ travelling expenses would not prove so. 
excessive as some appear toimagine. I certainly think we could elect delegates 
here to-night to meet again in a few months time. 
Mr. J. J. Dante. (Pittsworth): Our industry is generally called the 
backbone of the country, but this backbone in many cases appears to be without 
marrow, or, in other words, without life. I was not in accord with the speaker 
who contended that there was no level upon which we could all stand. We get 
our life from the land, and we are all producers. Our industry is alive at this 
Conference. It is alive at our shows, alive at our ploughing matches ; but it is 
scarcely alive when we call our public meetings or our members’ meetings. It 
seems to be partly dead at those times and partly alive. It is alive on these 
occasions in the person of the president, the secretary, and, perhaps, barely a 
quorum of a committee. 
The Hon. Anaus Grason: The discussion on the papers has been very 
interesting, and some of it puts the minds of gentlemen like Mr. McLean and 
myself back a good many years ago. I was thinking, when this discussion was 
going on, of the necessity for more organisation, of the meeting I went to, some- 
where in 1866. We got inside of a four-rail fenced yard, and sat on the rails. 
while a few other gentlemen were speaking. In that yard was inaugurated 
what was generally known for a great many years as the East Moreton 
Farmers’ Association. From that organisation a meeting took place on the 
Logan. We organised further, and plenty of other meetings took place long 
before much of the country was opened up that the speakers have referred to 
this afternoon. JI like to look back to the beginning and see how it is working 
out. I remember when Mr. McLean and myself went to work up the meeting 
at Beenleigh. We had a jolly time, although we were both teetotallers. We 
have lived to see the thing move on, and I am delighted to see here to-day 
some 150 gentlemen from all parts of Queensland representing over eighty 
different associations. This is a mighty force, but there is one weak point: 
The difficulty is to get at that majority outside—the men we are working for, 
the men that we are striving to advantage. We want to make the little 
societies strong. It is very pleasant to know that we have men like Mr. Peek, 
who aspire to see these farmers’ organisations taking up parliamentary action 
of their own to govern the whole of the agricultural and pastoral interests of 
the State. 
Mr. J. H. Maynarp (Gympie): The subject for discussion on the business- 
sheet for this afternoon is the establishment of a Central Chamber of 
Agriculture which has been put there at the instigation of my association, and 
I may explain this was done in support of a circular sent out by the Logan 
Farming and Industrial Association. When that subject was discussed at our 
meeting it was received enthusiastically, and it was felt that every society in 
the State should support such a movement. When we come to the question of 
societies, it appears to me that in Queensland we have really two classes of 
farmers’ associations. One, usually called “The” association, whose chief 
business is to hold a show ; and the other is a very small society—the farmers’ 
association. The centre of the first association is ing town, and generally the 
principal people interested in it are business men. It is largely a town show. 
The farmers are asked for support, and they invariably give it. The second 
society has various names, but it has one chief object, and that is to discuss: 
~~ oh 
