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MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON VINE DISEASES BILL.
308. Mr Cox.] You believe that, considering the value of the vine, it would be worth the while of anyone having a vineyard to continue the application of the remedies you recommend---that it would pay to do it? It would pay to do it. In France you will find owners saying, "We have overcome the expense ; our wines fetch a high price, and the expense does not matter to us." In the south of France they are planting vineyards in sandy ground ; and in a few years, I believe, nobody will be taking of the phylloxera as the pest they have been calling it in the past, because at first it took people by surprise. I am quite prepared, if asked to do so---and I do not wish for it anymore than my expenses---to show to such people as the Government might select how to administer the treatment---how to apply it ; and than it would be for them to get somebody from home, if they were not satisfied, to apply it independently of me. I do not know whether the members of the committee have done me the honour of reading my petition all through. The Board in Victoria choose to say that the eradication in Geelong has not been thorough, but the members of the Board could not do it themselves with the amount of perfection they seem to expect.
309. Mr. King.] There is only one other question. This (alluding to witness's petition) is your first petition I think? That is the petition I sent to the individual members of the council it was not in a proper form to be presented officially .
310. I think you say here that when the invasion of the insect is limited to a very small area, and cannot be traced further back than the actual season, the theory of destruction can be countenanced ; those are the circumstances under which it can be countenanced? Not more than countenanced ; you can try it, but it would not affect the result. It would be reasonable to attempt it ; but in Portugal they go so far that the Government buys the remedy, bisulphate of carbon, and sells it at a loss of 33 per cent, to the Treasury, so that the people might use it. On the report of the Inspector of Vineyards in Italy the Minister fixed the extent which should be proclaimed infected, the curative treatment to be