A Petition From Stock Owners.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 292, 16 June 1896, Page 2

A Petition From Stock Owners.

The following petition is to be presented to Parliament ; We, the undersigned stock owners desire to bring under your notice the following matters as adversely affecting the interests of the farmers of the colony, viz : That we regard the Stock Act, 1895, as in some respects oppressive, and that the powers conferred are liable to be exceeded and exercised in a manner which may inflict hardships on the struggling settler, and and be detrimental to the dairy industry, and especially in respect to cowpox and tuberculosis. As to cowpox which was in 1865 placed on the schedule list of the Act, we pray that it be removed from the scheduled list for three reasons : That it is universal wherever cows are kept, and has been here in the memory of the oldest settlers, every herd in the colony being more or less affected during each season, especially where heifers are milked for the first season ; that it is harmless to milk, no case being known of in the colony where such milk has affected the public health ; that the prohibiting of milk from cows merely showing cowpox will render the business of dairying so unprofitable as to make it impossible to carry it on, and thus interfere with the principal source of livlihood of so many small farmers, and seriously hinder the dairy industry of the colony ; and we wish it understood that we do not ask or desire in this respect any relaxing of thorough inspection of dairies and premises as provided. As regards tuberculosis, we pray that where action is taken under the Stock Act, 1890, compensation be granted out of the public funds of the colony for those reasons ; that destroying cattle for tuberculosis simply means ruin to the farmers ; that it may commence and exist in cattle at any time, and through no fault or carelessness or want of cleanliness of the farmer, and is purely a misfortune ; that no cases have come to light in New Zealand where milk from cows affected^ias been detrimental to the public health, such being merely assumed, and that as it exists in a degree more or less throughout New Zealand at the present time the enforcement of the Act would mean the unnecessary destruction of one half of the dairy cattle in the colony, and therefore, as such action is taken for the benefit of the general public, we consider the stock-owner is fairly entitled to relief out of the general funds of the colony. mm — mmm^^ mmmm ■___.