POULTRY CONFERENCE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 976, 17 November 1910, Page 8

POULTRY CONFERENCE.

' HATCHING "THE BIG EGG.". ' The conference of those. interested in the inauguration of the New Zealand Poultry Association and ,the development of' the poultry ; industry,', continued its sittings yesterday,, Mr. E. O'Reilly, of Dunedin, ill the chair. The business of the. morning-concession was concerned mainly with a general discussion'on the development of egg circles upon a national scale, so that under the auspices of the newly-formed Poultry Association, the "Big Egg" would bo duly hatched, and .the industry, both as regards home consumption and export .'trade, would rank with the staple industries of the Dominion. . The conference then took the afternoon off, 'and went upon a pleasant excursion to Mr. W. Knight's poultry fai-m at the Lower Hutt, resuming business in the evening. Exploiting the Market. Introducing -the -discussion on egg circles, their organisation and development, Mr. I. H, Rutherford (llasterton), said that the egg-.business -was not going to he bolstered i by: 'a ,few ..-'individuals here and. there;!-c6mbination . alone would'.be the mainstay, of the industry. Poultrymen: in' New Zealand had been ;for some time past- dissatisfied ivith -the present system, or want of system under which their eggs had been put on the market, and were rapidly coming to see that a national, system of egg circles, working in union with .each. other,' was the-most satisfactory means'of obtaining'a uniform price all the year 'round, not necessarily a high price, though it had to be noted that poultrymen did not consider they were getting value at less than Is. per dozen. There was-no doubt that ifthey' could establish. a "reasonable' anduniform market price for eggs, the result would be a steady increase in popular demand. Ultimately, no doubt, the market price'would-be controlled by the export trade, and tho export trade was the thing they had to look to if they desired this industry .to' be firmly established'upon a sound-commercial hasis, with an influential organisation. Grading the Eggs. -The egg circle movement had its detractions. It had been alleged that tho . movement;.was rearly the nucleus of an egg trust; again, it had been asserted that the concentration ..of eggs at . particular centres like Wellington would ten'l to'.glut the market. ■ It had: to'be noted,' Said- the speaker, that Wellington was the best market in New Zealand - at-the. present "time,-, and should be exploited'first.' |-_It was recognised, of course, thst in-. "creased' membership in" the various' egg ' ; i circles. wouldV'ultimately ■ cause a. rise in the cduntry- prices to the- level of the city prices. This uniformity, argued the speaker, was, a very desirable thing, as , under - present conditions eggs sold for Bd. -in one. town, and-ls. -in-another.' Mr/Rutherford'.then urged the necessity of instituting a system""of egg-grad- ; ing upon a basis of weight—grade 1, over \ ; 20z.;. grade 2, from ljoz. to 20z.; grade : 3, under ljoz; Duclc eggs' might also : come in for their.:attention, for with the ' improved systems of feeding, duck eggs : ;were becoming more palatable, and wore \recognised .as'valuable':for cooking pur- : poses. The question of grading should i also have regard to the case with Which < they v,-ere cleaned, aiid the distinction : between fertilised and. sterilised eggs, the ' latter being better adapted for. storage • purposes. The National '.'Big Egg." . . With' regard to. the pioneer 'work which ! still remained to, be - done .-in . connection with the-organisation'of a. national sys- : tem of'egg circles; .tho speaker l said that 1 in: South. Australia, . the State Govern- ! ment had : undertaken the responsibility : of " the: organising. In New Zealand poul- j trymen acknowledged . the valuable'assist- : ance'which had been tendered to the in- ! dustry by Mr. F. Brown, the Govern- ' ment poultry instructor. They would welcome assistance from tho Government \ to the extent at least of free railway , passes—ultimately a subsidy grant upon I moneys voluntarily donated to the. or- ' ganising funds—for the carrying on of 1 tho organising, work. ' It was to be clearly understood that : the. egg circle -was, not to be taken as , existing in. antagonism: to the dealer. ; Storekeepers had welcomed the move- 1 ment, recognising that Uniform prices ] were to the benefit of trade. There ! were some poultrymen at present who believed that it would be possible to remain without .the Circle and yet : obtain ! the market prices established by the \ Circle. This might hold for a time, it ( was true, but by following up a careful i system of grading and building up a re- i putation for quality, etc., it would ulti- j mately come that the'public would ac- ; quire a preference for goods sold under ; the auspices of. the Circle. ; A Pioneer "Egg." Mr. Rutherford concluded with a re- : ference to, the work of the. pioneer egg ] circles in' New Zealand—the Wairarapa Circle—and its organisation.~. This circle commenced operations with a membership of 10, in May last, forwarding to the Wellington agent S3J- dozen eggs. . In 23 weeks, the membership had risen to 51, the Circle had dispatched 16.163} dozen eggs to tho market—an average of 122 dozen, per Week—and realised .£578 ss. Bd. Sold locally the eggs would have brought ,£430 13s. 3d., a difference of. 2Jd. per dozen in favour of the Circle. The speaker also bestowed a warm eulogy upon the work which had been accomplished by Mr. J. B. Merrett, of Christchurcli, who initiated tto movement, nnd had given up a lot of his time in assisting in tlie organising work of various circles. Another point deserving of attention, concluded Mr. Rutherford, was ,tho question, of railway freights. Ho I thought that they wore as much entitled to freight concessions as wero the fruit- ] growers. j An interesting discussion followed. Mr. 1 J. B. Merrett, o£ Christchurch, spoke 1 earnestly .in favour of a whole-hearted s movement for tho establishment of a 11a- ! tional systepi of egg circles. The main i I point-to be kept in view, he said, was '

that a uniform and reasonable price should bs established for tho egg market. The present-, fluctuations in the market price were fatal to the encouragement of the regular patronage of the consumer. When the consumer got out of the habit of using owing to the pvohibi&ve price, he did not immediately begin to purchaso eggs for domestic uso when, tho price came' down. It was sometimes months before lie' came back to the e»gs. That was a great point to be considered—the habitual consumption of eggs as a' national food, and tlio creation of a national and consistent demand. _ It was no use scaring people away by inflating the market price. Let the price bo'-uni-form and consistent, and the demand would be consistent. Other speakers followed, their remarks being strongly in support ..of the . sentiments expressed bj the previous speakers. Inspecting Up-to-Date Methods. The conference then adjourned, and the members took train for the Lower Hutt, ivhere a visit was paid to Mr. W. Knight's poultry farm.-'Mr.--Knight treated the delegates with the greatest hospitality. A drag met the visitors at the station, and on their arrival at the farm, an enjoyable afternoon- was spent in the inspection of their host's admirably-equipped runs. During the afternoon an exhibition of cramming was given by Mr. F. Brown, the Government Poultry Expert. The party returned to town about 6 o'clock. Papers by Experts. ; The evening session was devoted to .-the reading of papers. Mr. Brown, the Government expert, read a most interesting paper on the subject of "The Selection of Layers." Mr. A. G. Mumby, of Silverstream, followed with an educative paper on "Tho Feeding of Layers!" .. A number of questions were asked at the close of. each address, and the evening proved to be a most instructive one'for the delegates. -. - . ■ To-day's Proceedings. , The morning session to-day will be devoted to a consideration of the various aspects of the export trade in the poultry industry, and papers on that subject will be read by Mr. J. B. • Merrett (Christchurch) and Mr. S. 8.. Bull (Auckland). ,fhe conference will spend the afternoon in a discussion of the question: "Which are the more profitable egg-producers— liens or ducks?'' Mr.-W. S. Scott,.of Onehunga, will lead off with a paper on the'subject.- Mr. J. Rose, of- Burnham, who is due from the south to-day, will lead .the evening discussion with a paper on the subject of "Farmers as Poultrykeepers."