POULTRY FARMING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1529, 27 August 1912, Page 6

POULTRY FARMING.

EXPORT TRADE NEEDED. i PROPOSALS TO MINISTER. A deputation iSoni tho New Zealand Poultry Association, consisting of delegates lrom all over New Zealand, waited upon Uie lion. W. 1\ Massey, Minister lor agriculture, yesterday. Air. J. li. AJerretl t-poivo of the need for developing an export irade. already Uie praiucuon was approximating to tho deinuiui, and in the summer scusim eggs were irtijuentiy elieap. 11 supplier tuujU be unloaded (Miring ihe summer months to Honolulu or \ uncouvcr, or tome otlier places wliere eggs were scarce at Uat period, it would encourage limners to der velop the industry, it the tjovernment wouid undertake a special trial shipment, members of tho association would guarantee sonio 10,UIW dozen eggs to bo bent. Air. A. li. Kent, president of the New Zealand Utility Poultry Club, Christchurch, supplemented what Mr. Merrett had said. Ii an outside market could be found, the industry could bo doubled or trebled very easily—even made so import- ' ant as to vio with the butter industry. No poultry farmer was, however, financially strong enough to exploit an outside iuarKet for himself. Mr. W. C. Davis (Napier) asked that regulations bo made under tho Public Health Act to the effect that preserved eggs should always bo stamped, and sold as such, \ I Mr. P. Rogau (Dunedin) said that tho Government poultry iarnts were valueless, and suggested they bo abolished, and that real experimental farms be established, 0110 in each island. Mr. John Studholm (Canterbury) said he believed an assured poultry industry would be a great help to men seeking to get a living off small areas, and would therefore be an aid to. closer settlement. He asked that tho Government employ two expert instructors, one in tho north and one in the South Island, to move about always among farmers, advising them as to the most profitable methods of poultry raising. He thought that all that tho deputation asked could bo granted by tho Government without any extra expenditure. Mr. Massoy, in reply, said that he personally knew very little of poultry farming, but ho had been led to believe (hat it, was a very profitable form of farming. He had been assured that iJio industry had arrived at a stage when an export trade was necessary. This was something tangible, and tlic.Goveriunent would do all that could be done to assist farmers to gel that export trade. He would instruct the officers of tho Departments concerned to inako all the necessary inquiries. Something might, be done to encourage a trade with Vancouver, with, which town a very fair and increasing trade was being developed. The Government would arrange to hove a trial shipment sent if the results of inquiries warranted tho experiment. He did not know whether it was feasible to have preserved ggs ofTred for sale stamped as such. Ho would make inquiries about that also. He was glad to bear a proposal to do away with the Government poultry farms, for tlie expenditure in connection with them bad been very considerable, and already the. Department had been censured for expending so much money on them for so little return. It was one of tho matters that would have bis attention as soon as the session was ended, and unless the results wcro very much better than he expected them to be, he could not advise the Government to continue the expenditure in connection with those poultry establishments. .. '