THE CATTLE TICK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 191, 8 May 1919, Page 8

THE CATTLE TICK

Sir. —I read with interest the letter in your issue of April 7 signed "Cattle larmer," with reference to "Cattle lick." I would like to quote the following from a North Auckland paper:—, A telegraphic messago published yesterday disclosed a feeling of alarm amongst the farming community south of Auckland concerning the spread of the cattle tick, and made mention of the fact that no provision existed for preventing the conveyance of infected animals, into clean areas, whereby dissemination of the trouble is facilitated. The jNortu Auckland farmers as a rule do not view the tick existent in the peninsula ns anything very vicious, nor is ■there anything to show that detrimental ejects' have been occasioned., What they do regard with growing concern, .however, is the damaging influence upon the north which would be caused by the creation of a scare, no matter how unwarranted. One .instance of such a baneful sequel has already come under notice in the case of a Hawke's Bay stock dealer, who cancelled an- order for 100 head of northern cattle because of a totally unfounded rumour that the tick constituted a menace. Yielding to the advice of the Agricultural Department, the- farmers of this district decided some months ago upon the construction of a cattlo din at the Oakleigh cattle shipping yard, though it must be understood that this resolve was reached rather with the intent of allaying suspicion than with any notion of actual necessity. The possibility of the north being declared an infected area carried with it a very grave menace to the interests of this part of New Zealand, and it is gratifying in such circumstances to learn from a pronouncement by'the Minister of Agriculture W. D. S. Mac Donald) that an eventuality of the kind'is unlikely to ensue, as the tick which appears here is absolutely innocuous." Are the Minister of Agriculture andihis Department. deferring the obvious duty of. putting the necessary quarantine on the tick-infested areas of the north through a fear of offending the farmers of that area? Are the cattle dips erected in tlio north just for allaying suspicion, or are they being used for cradicating the k tick ?—I am, etc., ■■ WAIRARAFA FARMER,. Mn6terton, May, 7, 1919. -