February 28, 1905 (10th Parliament, 1st Session)

Mr. LALOR.

This will be the germ of competition by the association against ordinary seed gi'owers. The latter will have to compete with an association which is officered largely by men paid out of the public exchequer and connected with the Department of Agriculture, and I am also advised that the Minister of Agriculture is himself a member of the association. It does not seem to me fair that the ordinary seed merchant should have to compete with an organization of that kind. Whether that be the case or not, to the ordinary individual it looks as if the Bill now before the House were in the interests of the Seed Growers' Association ; and, of course, the farmers will naturally go to an association which is so closely identified with the Department of Agriculture. That is not fair to the farmers or seed merchants or the wholesale trade.