THE CATTLE TICK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 209, 29 May 1919, Page 8

THE CATTLE TICK

>'"■' DiNQEBbUS PEST DISCUSSED. ;'■■/ The spread of tho cattle tick was one ;■•■.• el , the matters disoussed by the Wel- :•/.' lington Provincial Conference of tho'ltorv, ;■ mers' tTnioii, Delegates displayed/a great '.' deal of interest in the tick, and a ceri tain airionntof alarm about its apuear- ;." Mice in districts that until recently were i ;. clean, .•■ - ■ . . ■'-'[■■ A 'delegate who had had experience of ! ... the tick in South Africa said he thought ;v the eeiioiyneßj of the danger was being p '.'exaggerated. The tick had been >n New •'• Zealand for twenty years to his knov- (.; ledge, and he did not think that its eon- ..■.'■'■ trol was going to be a matter .of great : difficulty, The nocessary precautions, iij fthe way of clipping and quarantining, i ■ "certainly ought to be enforced, s'nee tlie 'I':.' tiok would become a real menace if such ,' diseases as red-water fovor and T<>xas \:-: fever were introduced into New. ZenlaiidV ■ The_ tick was a notorious carrier of in- ' fection. Ticks tako,n from infected cattle I'■ in Sonth Africa had been sent to EngI land by post and there placed upon '■'" Wealthy cattle at nn experimental station. ;. ' The oattle developed red-water fever. , The regulations in South Africa, added . this delegate, made the presence of : . cattle tick on a farm notifiable. ■ The f&r- ---' mer who found tick on his farm had ; .--■• to inform the authorities, on penalty of .' heavy fines, and then ho had to take tho i measures laid down for the extermination ; ;of the tick. His cattle were quarantined ' ' -until the' inspectors reported that the • ' tick had disappeared.. These precautions ! had not cleared South African herdn from' j:, the tick, but they had helped materially ; to prevent the spread of the pest. •■ ; The conferonco had before it a remit i urging the Government to take drastic ; measures for the suppression of the tick ;'■ and to impose quarantine on infected J areas. These proposals were adopted, but a further proposal that a tax on nil !> oattle should be levied for. the purpose '■; of providing funds for fighting the tick :-,.■;■ was defeated. The delegates who favour-- ;' ed this levy scheme argued that it was j " m the interests of all farmers to check ; ' the spread of the tick, and that the f whole burden ought not to fall upon the : men who happened to. hold iand in in- ! • ' fected districts. "Wo ought- to have ' learned our lesson with the Ca'lifornian ;. thistle," said one delegate. "There was ; im concerted action. The. men who 'had ,■■ •■-. thistle on their land were left to fight it ;■-, alone, and the consequence is that the thietlo has spread all over (ho country. ; ..- We onßht to unite against a common l ~ danger.-" . •

; who opposed the levy quoted ! . the case of the tax imposed on sheep in J:-. .. order to fight the seal). The scab was i .checked, and ceased to be a danger to sheep-farmers j but the fax remained and i .•■continued-to.lie collected long after the : disease had ceased to trouble the coiini .... try "The Government.will impose taxes '■■>■■■ 'I" 10 *, enough without our rocommenda- (;"',:: tion/ , said.the opposing delegates. "We j -.. can get ourselves taxed easily■'•■eiioiigliy ,<:. but we will have:a.-.very-hard task jji>t- !. ting the tax off again." This view pre-' . . railed' with'tho conference, though the i. original idea seemed to he that the lew ! should be'collected by the ■ Farmers' i Union nrel not by the Government at all. ■■ "• 'A suggestion endorsed by the conference ;. was .that the Government should be urged to_ guard against tho conveyance of ,/ infection by railway trucks. It was ■; .-pointed oufc.that trucks in .which cattle had, been carried were moved from in- •',-,;, fected districts into non-infected districts, and that there wns n danger of the tick ;. /.being transferred bv this means. Dogs <-/ w ere capable- of carryih? the tick, and , they constituted another source of dani •: ger. ■ . •

■'• Reference to the subject of tick-infested '-.. ; cattle was made by the Hon. ■W. D. 8. . "■ Mac Donald (Minister of Agriculture) in the course of an address to delegates to" : the conference of the • Wellington Provincial Fawners' Union yesterdav afternoon. ,Mr; Mac Donald said that tho matter was still under consideration by ; _ his Department, and he could not yet etate ■ definitely what action would 'be ;. taken. His'own idea was that the best '■" way to combat the spread of cattle ticks ._ was to prevent the movement of cattle ••"-, from an infected area. (Hear, henr.) I , In reply to a .question'whether diiroing : .wonld be made compulsory, the Minis-: : . ..tor said he hoped that the same procedure would be followed with cattle' as in the case of sheep. '