SHEEP AND RABBIT ACTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1378, 12 November 1884, Page 2

SHEEP AND RABBIT ACTS.

In Committee of Supply (Sense of RepreaentatirePf November 4th) the following remarks were made on the rote—stock branch, L 30,360: — Mr Walker would take the opportunity of impressing several points on the attention of the Government, the more so as there had been no opportunity of discussing the report of the Joint Oommittee.on the Sheep and Rabbit Acts. Certain districts in the colony now paid nearly the whole of the expenses of the department, which caused a great deal of dissatisfaction, and the Committee—be spoke of himself as a member of it—only refrained from recommending the Government to adjust the inequality because they 'believed that at the present moment there was an urgent necessity that the Government should use every endeavor under the Acts to stamp out the scab and rabbitpests ; and therefore the Committee considered it would be inopportune to raise the question of expen iture now, considering it a mere subsidiary question that could be settled at another time. The Committee were most emphatic in urginy that the scab pest should be stamped out, to enable New Zealand to take advantage of the Australian market for sheep; and it was clearly proved that it was.ienly through the bad administration of the Acts that the colony was not now iu a position to do so. He therefore earnestly impressed on the Government the necessity of a vigorous administration (of the Sheep and Rabbit Acts in the spirit of the Committee’s report. Sir Julius Vogel said the Government had not yet had time to folly consider the report and evidence of the Joint Committee, but they had had time to recognise that the labors of the Committee were of a most important character. Its recommendations deserved very high consideration, and the evidence was of an exceedingly interesting character. It would have to be considered by the Government very carefully. These estimates were made out before that report was brought down, and the amo ints were similar to those passed last year. The Government would not be relieved from the duty of considering to what extent and in what manner they could give effect to the recommendations of the Committee. Those recommendations, summarised, amounted to this: that the provisions of the Act should be vigorously carried out without reference to local partiality or local feeling; that officers of the department should be chosen only for their efficiency, and that sinecure positions should not be conferred upon any persons who could not find other employment. It was a strong recommendation on the part of the Committee that the Government should aid in introducing in large numbers the natural enemy of the rabbit—the ferret. Mr Smith pointed out that the larger proportion of tba money raised was paid by the districts of Canterbury and Hawke’s Bay, and that there should be a fairer division of the money expended in future. Vote, L 30.360, agreed to.