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' free from infection 'be substituted in lieu thereof, and the word ' latter' inserted before the word ' colony' in the last line."—Agreed to. Clause as amended agreed to. Clause 26 was amended to read as follows : " That Australasian horses and dogs, accompanied by a declaration by the owner and a certificate from the Inspector or veterinary surgeon at the port of shipment, be allowed to land on the permit of a Customs officer ; but, in the event of any colony or colonies not carrying out the regulation requiring foreign dogs to be quarantined in Government quarantine grounds only, all dogs arriving either by sea or land from any such colony or colonies shall be deemed foreign stock." Clause 27 was passed as printed. At this stage it was decided to discuss Mr. Coleman Phillips's paper on " Successful Babbitsuppression,' read at the previous sitting. (Continued from page 22.) Mr. Eitchie said he had had several conversations with Mr. Phillips with regard to the means taken to destroy the rabbits, and he might say that he agreed with him in the main. If they could get neighbours to combine to put clown the pest it would be a very good thing, but. that was difficult, especially with farmers, who were the worst people in the world to combine in matters of this kind. He did not agree in spreading disease among the rabbits. It was a serious risk, and might run the colony into great loss. Mr. Lawey said he had had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Phillips's expositions of the rabbitquestion on many occasions. As some delegates were aware, he had given evidence in an exhaustive manner before the Stock Committee. Like Mr. Eitchie, he (Mr. Lawry) agreed a great deal with what Mr. Phillips had advanced, but would only speak on one of the remedies—the rabbit-netting. Before last year he knew nothing at all about it, but he had been appointed to go to Canterbury to inspect the fencing and to see whether the expense was justified by the result. His opinion, was that had the fence not been erected on the Clarence and the Waiau Eivers the whole of North Canterbury would have been infested. The rabbit-fence near the Clarence Eiver was acting as a great check, and the circumstances were most favourable—for this reason : that they had the river as- a first check, and the fence was erected 4or 5 chains from the river all the way up. This enabled men to traverse up and down the fence every day, killing every rabbit they saw. On the north side of the river the rabbits were to be seen in thousands, but between the fence and the river they did not see the sign of a rabbit. He believed that the rabbit-fence had accomplished its purpose. Of course the men travelling up and down the fence saw rabbits frequently on the line of fence, but they scoured the country and killed each one they saw. So far as the natural enemy — the ferret—was concerned, they did effective work, and he had had opportunities of seeing what the little animals could do. A few days ago he had had a conversation with a gentleman who said the ferrets had driven out the rabbits from Kaikoura : where previously they had existed in thousands, they could not now be seen. He said it was necessary to train the ferrets before they were turned out. He turned them out into a small yard, and trained them to kill rabbits, for four or five weeks. If the ferrets were turned out without training they did not know how to get a living, and very soon died of starvation. Sir J. Hall said that had not been his experience. Mr. Lawey said that his experience of the rabbit-fence was that it effected a great purpose, and more especially was this the case when there was a river as the first defence. He did not see a single rabbit on the properties of Mr. Eutherford and others south of the fence, but there were thousands on the Serpentine side. Mr. Eobeets said that Mr. Phillips put among his measures of avoidance the constant use of any one poison. That was contrary to the experience they had had in the South, where they had so much to do with rabbits. They had used phosphorus for years, and nothing but phosphorus, and it had been found very efficacious. In the light of his experience, poisoning was perfectly good, and continued to be efficacious for years. Some years it was not as good or effectual as others, but this was more to be accounted for by the seasons and the quality of the poison used. With regard to Mr. Lawry's remarks about the fencing in Canterbury, he did not think Canterbury could coddle itself up with the idea that it had not rabbits inside. They had enough to stock the country, and unless they adopted measures to suppress their numbers it was only a matter of a few years when there would be as many on one side of the fence as on the other. It had been stated that there were as many rabbits on one side of the Waitaki fence as on the other. Mr. Bidwill said that bisulphide of carbon was being used in the Wairarapa. Twelve or fifteen years ago the rabbits had made a raid on the Wairarapa, and increased to a large extent, and it was only within the last three or four years that they had been suppressed. His idea was that if you cleared away the cover as much as possible you would be able to get rid of them. Phosphorized oats would undoubtedly clear a number of them off, but there were always a great number left. In many instances they would not take the poison. He knew of hundreds of instances where sheep had been killed by the phosphorized grain. A few years ago they used bisulphide of carbon, and since that had had no trouble with the rabbit-pest. A man went round and saw where the rabbits went in, and stopped up the holes. Years ago people would have made it a penal offence to use bisulphide of carbon, but now they used it themselves. He had been up to a property where the rabbits were as thick as they could be five years ago, and the manager would not think of using bisulphide of carbon. But two years ago he (Mr. Bidwill) had induced him to try it, and the manager now admitted that it was a great success. He had ridden over the property, which contained some 2,000 acres, and had swarmed with rabbits. Wirenetting had been used, and it was of great benefit; but the land was not very broken. On another property they were employing sixty men in using the bisulphide of carbon, and he was sure it was doing splendid work. No doubt it destroyed a large number of the natural enemy, but when they took into consideration the large number of rabbits, and also the small number of the natural enemy, it could easily be seen that the natural enemy would never be able to cope with the pest