"MOSTLY TALK"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 230, 17 June 1918, Page 8

"MOSTLY TALK"

! SHOULD THE A. AND P. CONFERi " ENCES BE CONTINUED? ■ A suggestion that the Canterbury A. Mid P. Association 6hould recommend to • the forthcoming New Zealand Confer- ! Mico that no further conferences be held during war-time was -Qebated at tho last meeting. of the association's general I committee. ' ■ | Mr. C. H. Ensor raised the point that | this was surely too drastic a proposal. Their associations were not merelv showhol ling organisations; they had'the interests of tha agricultural" and pastoral !' community in their keeping, and wartime wim no time to let those interests elide, 'l'hey had to keep up their produc-. i t.ion, and at these conferences 'they got wr ideas in that direction. Lot them I not cease to meet, but let them meet in ; conference with the Efficiency Board. . ! Mr. Jno. Deans,. who bad made the original suggestion, said that he had acted from experience. Ho had been to several conferences, and had found i that they were mostly talk. : Members ' would be far better at home concentrating on their work than going up to AYel- ' lington to talk and achieve nothing. There was the Efficiency Board in AVeli. lington and the Board of Agriculture to look after farming matters. His opinion ■ vas that the multiplicity of commitI tea and the like hindered rather ijian j helped the agricultural and' pastoral '; people. Mr. Ensor objected that if tho trouble was that the conference accomplished I nothing, then let them continue to meet j and see to it that they did do somei thing. In war-time they must do something. : ®- W. Lochhead and Sir George j. Clifford supported Mr. Deans, Sir George to,narking that in attending the con- ; ferences he had always been impressed : with their uselossness. ; *It was suggested that suspension for •; ono year might be tried, and finally an ; amendment, proposed by Mr. Seth Smith, ; "That the holding of conferences be ad- | ]ourned sine die," was accepted for sendj ing forward as a remit 'to the fortheom- | ing) gathering.