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certainly be for the benefit of the Conference as a whole. If they find that they must stay away, we recognize that it is due to a sense of obligation to the institutions they are attached to. Mr. Roberts : I have a suggestion to make that may meet the desires of the professors. The committees may sit for days, and we would not require their services for a time. I suggest that the matter be left in the hands of the Business Committee, and if the professors are wanted the committee to be empowered to communicate with them and ask them to attend. Professor Belshaw: We have a difficulty in providing the necessary teaching staff for our students, and it is not because we object to coming down. I should be very glad indeed to come. Hon. Mr. Ban : If the Business Committee calls any one they are responsible for the payment of their expenses, and if they do call the professors the latter have a chance of getting something. Votes of Thanks. Mr. Bishop : Before separating I wish to take this opportunity of moving a very hearty vote of thanks to the Prime Minister, our present Chairman, for presiding over this Conference at times, for the lead he gave us in his opening remarks, and particularly for having arranged that this Conference should take place in the first instance. Personally, lam hopeful that at the end of the Conference we shall have some tangible result to show ; and if we have no tangible result we shall still have something to congratulate the Dominion 011 —viz., that for the first time we have had in this country the primary producers and all employers in the secondary industries meeting together with all sections of labour in one room for mutual discussion of their difficulties. The knowledge which each side will gain from this meeting will, I honestly believe, be well worth the trouble you, sir, have taken to bring us all together. I certainly hope for a more tangible result; but if nothing more tangible accrues, then the Conference will still have been worth the while. The vote of thanks was carried by acclamation. The Chairman : Thank you, gentlemen. I can assure you that if the bringing of you all together at one table is likely to assist in solving the various difficulties that confront the Dominion 1 shall be very pleased with any humble efforts I have put forward in that direction. I know our desire is to help the community generally and the country we are all proud to belong to. May I also say again that I am sure the Parliamentary Committee is quite satisfied with the progress made in the Conference up to the present. The credit is not due to me, but I think, Mr. Bishop, it is largely due to my colleagues on the Parliamentary Committee. On that committee we have had to show a very similar forbearance in regard to our individual opinions on matters which we have had to discuss relating to the setting-out of the business and how it should be arranged, and I assure you we understand one another very much better now than when we first commenced our duties, to say nothing of some very trying hours when the question was before Parliament itself. I want to thank the members of the Conference for the mutual forbearance shown and for the fine spirit in which the Conference has been carried on. I want again to emphasize the point that, so far as the Parliamentary Committee, the Government, and the officers of State present are concerned, we are all at your service to assist in any way we possibly can. I sincerely thank you, Mr. Bishop, for your kind words in regard to us. I am afraid I am in rather an invidious position just now, because your Chairman (Mr. A. D. Thomson) is present, and I have no right to be where I am, but it was thought that I might as well finish up the day, in order that if any points cropped up requiring consideration by the Parliamentary Committee I might be present to help to elucidate them. Again I thank you. Mr. Roberts : I have to move a vote of thanks to our Chairman (Mr. Thomson), who presided at the two previous days of the Conference. In doing so, I may say that he had a very easy job, not a difficult job at all. Both sides had confidence in him that he would give fair play and a fair deal to every one concerned; and that he did in every possible way. lam sure that everybody is very pleased with the way in which Mr. Thomson conducted the proceedings. In order not to delay the Conference too long, I refrained from speaking when Mr. Bishop moved the vote of thanks to yourself, Mr. Chairman, but on behalf of the workers I have to extend to you and to the members of the Parliamentary Committee our thanks for the arrangements you have made for our convenience. From the very setting-up of the Conference everything has been done to make it the success which I hope it will be ; and I am specially pleased that the proceedings have been marked by such a splendid spirit of forbearance. All kinds of papers have been delivered—papers which many of the delegates possibly disagreed with ; but the delegates have accepted their fellows' point of view, and if we only continue that till the end of the Conference I believe that very good results to the workers, the employers, and the Dominion as a whole will ensue. For the success that has attended t'he Conference so far I think the Parliamentary Committee is very largely responsible, and we have to thank you, sir, as Chairman, and the members of the committee for the good work that has made that success possible. I have very great pleasure in moving a hearty vote of thanks to our Chairman (Mr. Thomson" 1 for his fine chairmanship during the two days I have referred to. The vote of thanks was carried by acclamation. Right Hon. the Prime Minister : Mr. Thomson, it is my duty to convey to you, the real Chairman, the thanks of every member of the Conference, and, may I add, the thanks of the Government, to you for undertaking this work at, 110 doubt, considerable inconvenience to yourself. Mr. Thomson : I thank you sincerely, gentlemen, for the expression of your good will. Frankly, I feel that the vote of thanks should be the other way about, from me to you, because I have learnt a great deal during the two days I have been in the chair that has been very informing, to me, and will, I believe, be of use to me for the rest of my life. The work has been most interesting to me, and I hope I will be able to make it fruitful to myself. I thank you. Right Hon. the Prime Minister : I think that is all. I declare the Conference adjourned until Wednesday, the 18th April, at 10 o'clock a.m. The Conference adjourned at 10 minutes to 5 o'clock p.m.

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