QUARANTINED CATTLE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2093, 8 November 1880, Page 3

QUARANTINED CATTLE.

TO THE BDIXOB OF THE PBBSB. Sib, —Your readers may have observed that at a meeting of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association, held on Friday last, a deputation was appointed to interview the Oattle Board in reference to the removal of the quarantine of the oattle recently sent here by Mr S. Gardiner, the well-known breeder of Victoria. Under the circumstances, we should, at the risk of taking up a large portion of your space, feel obliged if you allow us to publish the correspondence which has passed between the Oattle Board and ourselves within the last few days. We make this request, not from any personal motives, but from the fact that this question is one of national importance. The facts are briefly these. We received on October 28th a telegram from Mr S. Gardiner to the following effect:— “ Matson Agents, Christchurch.

"Enter for Ohristchurch show—Fourth class, two bulls; ninth class, four heifers. Particulars boat yesterday.—S. Gaedineb. Melbourne, 27th October." On receipt of the above we interviewed the Obairman of the Cattle Board and presented the telegram. He advised us to write a letter to the Board on the subject, of which the following is a copy : "Ohrfcchurch, 28th October, 1880. "To the Chairman and Members of the Canterbury Cattle Board. "Gentlemen, —Herewith you will please find enclosed a telegram which we have this day received from Samuel Gardiner, Esq., of Brunswick Park, Victoria, which evidently points to tbe faot of his having already shipped for Canterbury a consignment of his shorthorns. This being the first communication we have received from Mr Gardiner, he is evidently under the impression that there is no prohibition to his oattle landing free in our province. We learn from Mr Boulton, the inspector of cattle, that the Board are about to declare Peacock's Wharf, Lyttelton, as a quarantine station, and that cattle from the Australian oolonies will be made subject to quarantine for thirty days. Our object in writing is to request the Board to take into consideration a revision of the whole subjeot, as in the case of the Oolao, Bridgewater Park and the Bundoora Pork herds there can be no shadow of suspicion as to there being any disease, as these herds have never been infected and the districts are perfectly free from pleuropneumonia. As these oattle are of the ohoioeat blood and sent forward for absolute sale, the adoption of restrictive measures such as quarantining would be a serious blow to the importers, and while we agree with tie Board that it is absolutely necessary to be very cautious, it would be a pity to be obstructive. Should your Board determine that seaborne cattle shall be Bubject to quarantine, we would ask your olemency in these special lots, and allow the cattle to be quarantined in Ohristchurch, so as to allow buyers to inspect, and enable them to be sold by auction, giving and taking delivery at the expiration of the thirty days. You will observe in Mr Gardiner's case he is desirous of showing tbe cattle at onr forthcoming show, whioh he will be unable to accomplish should you eleot to put the restriction on. We have to request your earnest consideration of this matter, and feel assured the Board will do everything necessary to meet the case; and in conclusion we would ask for the removal of the prohibition, as it is not at all likely that such established breeders would risk their utter ruination by allowing a chance of any of their animals breaking out with diseases suoh as pleuro. Failing your oonsent to remove the restriction altogether, we would ask you to allow of tho cattle being quarantined in a portion of our town premises, or at the private stables of our Mr Matson on the Papanui road. As the cattle were shipped yesterday, we are anxious to receive your early reply, more especially as the date of the entry for our show closes on Saturday next.—We are, &c, H. Matson AND CO." To this we reoeived the following reply : "Messrs H. Matson and Co., Christohurch.—By direotion of the Chairman of the Cattle Board, I have the honour to inform you that at a meeting of the Oattle Board, held tbis day to consider the application contained in your letter of yesterday, the Board see no reason for changing the decision arrived at at their meeting held on the 22nd mat. (to quarantine cattle arriving from the Australian colonies in a shed on Peacock's wharf, Lyttelton, for thirty days). As, from Mr Gardiner's telegram, the cattle may be expected to arrive within a week's time, I shall be obliged if you will arrange for the shed to be fitted up for their reception.—P. B. Bototon, Inspector of Cattle." On receipt of this letter we took legal advice, and found that the powers vested in the Board were absolutely autocratic; but deeming that suoh a matter was one of the greatest importance to the breeders of the province, we caused the subjeot to be brought forward at a committee meeting of the A. and P. Association, who seeing the urgency of the oase immediately took the matter up, and appointed a deputation to wait upon the members of the Oattle Board for the purpose of having the restrictions placed upon Mr Gardiner's cattle removed. The following gentlemen composed the deputation :—viz., Messrs J. Deans, Wm. Boag, H. Hell wraith, J. Ferguson, S. Garforth, and J. T. Matson. A cursory glanoe through these names will we think be sufficient to prove that our request could not have been so very unreasonable, as the deputation consisted of gentlemen to whom the introduction of disease would probably bo the most calamitous. In accordance with the resolution passed by the A. and P. {Association, the deputation waited upon the members of the Cattle Board at the hour appointed, and in addition to the verbal statements made by the chairman of the deputation, the following written representation was read, of which we have obtained a oopy : " To the Chairman and Members of the Cattle Board of Canterbury.

" Gentlemen, —We, the undersigned members of the deputation now wailing upon you, beg respectfully to inform you : " 1. That we were appointed by the oommifctee of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association of Canterbury to form a deputation to solicit you to release from quarantine the cattle of Mr Samuel Gardiner, of Victoria, now quarantined at Lyttelton by order of your Board. '• 2. That we beg to state to you in writing our reasons for requesting you to release the said cattle from quarantine, which are as follows :—(a) That Mr Gardiner's cattle now in Lyttelton are part of one of the purest bred and most celebrated herds in Australasia, (b) That there never has been any known disease amongst that herd, (c) That before the cattle, part of the said herd now in Lyttelton, were shipped from Victoria for New Zealand, they were duly inspected, and the necessary documents and certificates required by the Cattle Diseases Act of New Zealand to testify that they were free from disease were duly given, and are now in tho hands of Mr Boulton, your inspector, (d) That Mr Boulton inspected the said cattle when they arrived at Lyttelton on the 4th of November instant, and gave the master of the ship in whioh they were brought the necessary quarantine certificate authorising him to land them, (e) That the said cattle are perfectly free from all disease, (f) That the cattle are of very great value, and are entered for the Canterbury Cattle Show, to be held on the 9th and 10th instants, (g) That if the said oat tie be allowed to be shown at. our Cattle Show they will be a very attractive feature of the show, and their presence there will be productive of great benefit to the publio of Canterbury, (h) That if the said cattle be allowed to be shown they will be offered for sale, and it is not necessary to point out to the Board the

vast importance it would be to Canterbury oattle breeders to have their strains of blood crossed or improved by animals from bo well bred and highly prizad a herd, (i) That if they are not allowed to be shown they will be sent to Dunedin or back to Melbourne, and Canterbury will thus throw away a most favorable opportunity of securing Borne of the best bred cattle the colonies possess, (j) That in October or November of last year pedigree cattle from the same colony of Victoria were permitted to land in Canterbury a few days before the Cattle Show was held, without quarantine restraint and to be shown at the said show. That the said cattle were shown and Bold at the show of 1879, and most of them are now within the Provincial district of Canterbury. (k.) That none of the said cattle have up to this date exhibited any signs of disease of any kind. (1.) That it would be madneßS on the part of a well-known breeder of pedigree cattle of the very highest class to send for sale to a new market any animals from that herd unless he was perfectly certain that they were absolutely free from every kind of disease, (m.) That some members of this deputation are breeders of pedigree cattle, and have a very great stake in not assenting to the admission of cattle to Canterbury if there was the slightest shadow of a doubt that such cattle were likely to be infected with any disease. That the fact of those gentlemen appearing before you to request that you will be pleased to release from quarantine Mr Gardiner's oattle is the strongest justification for you to free those oattle from quarantine restraint, and the best guarantee that the said cattle are thoroughly sound, healthy, and free from all disease. That it is not the custom at Dunedin to quarantine cattle unless they arrive without the necessary certificate of having been shipped free from disease, and only a few weeks sinoe, Mr Reid, of Elderslie, Oamaru, landed cattle at Dunedin which he had bought in Victoria, and the inspeotor at Dunedin finding on inspection that the cattle were free from disease, allowed the said cattle to land without quarantine restraint. That Mr Gardiner shipped his cattle in total ignorance of the regulations under Diseased Cattle Aots published only in the Government ' Gazette ' of New Zealand on the 25th March, 1880, a publication not much known or read outside of New Zealand, and was induced to ship his cattle as he did because he knew that cattle sent to the last Canterbury Cattle Show by Victorian breeders were admitted without restraint. That under clause 5 of the said regulations you are specially empowered to release cattle from quarantine restraint when and as soon as you think fit to do so.

“ We respectfully submit to you that the facts and circumstances of the case of Mr Gardiner are such as call for an exercise of your clemency, and on his behalf we earnestly request you to exercise your authority under the regulations, and to grant the instant release of Mr Gardiner’s cattle. “ John T. Matson, “ Chairman of Deputation.” In due course the deputation received the following answers: “Christchurch, 6th November, 1880. “To J. T. Matson and the other members of the deputation. “ Gentlemen, —I have the honor to inform you that the Cattle Board having carefully considered the reasons given in your written memorandum and verbally why the restriction imposed on Mr Gardiner’s cattle should be rescinded, have come to the conclusion that, having due regard to the interests of cattle owners in the Canterbury district, they cannot release the cattle until they have been quarantined thirty days, as first ordered. “ I have, &0., “ Eobt. Wilkin, Chairman of the Board.” From the above it will be seen that the request of the deputation was refused. Whilst allowing that the Cattle Board are perfectly right in exhibiting extreme caution as to the importation of diseased stock, which would be a very disastrous matter to all of us, and to none more so than to ourselves as the representative agents of the majority of the prominent breeders of this colony, we cannot but think that the Government have framed the regulations of the Cattle Board injudiciously. As an instance of the absurdity of the position taken up by the Cattle Board in this case, we may state that it is, to experts, a well-known fact that pleuro may lie dormant in animals from three to twelve months, a fact which none of the Board, as at present constituted, seem to have grasped. The case generally has been so fully gone into in the letter of the deputation, which appears above, that we have only to add that cattle from the same herd 'soli last year in Otago to Messrs Deans and Mealove, will be found exhibited on the grounds of our Metropolitan Show this week, and the cattle of Messrs Robertson Bros, of Coles, which have only been landed from Victoria about two months, will also be exhibited. We much regret that the decision of the Cattle Board has gone against Mr Gardiner, whose cattle were franked as sound by the Australian inspectors, and also by our own Government inspector. We fear for the future that unless some modifications are introduced into our rules that Australian breeders, who seem to be inclined to create a trade in high class cattle here, will send them to other New Zealand ports, where the authorities are more liberal in the administration of the Act. Apologising for thus trespassing so much on your valuable space, we now leave this very important question in the hands of a discriminating public, and subscribe ourselves Yours, &0., H. Matson & Co., Stock and Station Agents, Christchurch.