MERINO SHEEP EXPORT

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 148, 10 July 1937, Page 6

MERINO SHEEP EXPORT

■ Fress Association. 1.

Australian Fears Unfounded

tBv Teleeraph-

WELLINGTON, Last NighL That thero is any possibility of Australian stud Merino sheep which are imported into New Zealand, .finding their way into other countries against which "'Australia has an embargo, was cmphatically denied by Mr. S. T. Bichmond, president of the Marlborough Merino Breeders' Association, in an interview to-day. Mr. Richmond was referring to a cable message from Sydney, stating that the opinion had been expressed at the last annual conferenee of .the Graziers' Association of New ; South Wales, that the effectiveness of the embargo on the export of Merino sheep from Australia" was endangered 'by - the sale of sheep to New Zealand. "1 can give a guarantee that not one Jslieep imported from Australia to New Zealand has ever been re-exported to South Africa or to any other country," said Mr. Richmond. ''We give a bond to the Australian Government that we ■Will use the sheep only in our own studs." Apart from Australia there was only one country which had made any mark in the fine-wool trade and that was South Africa. Stud Merino sheep from New Zealand, however, would not be good enough to satisfy the breeders of past importations from Australia in South Africa where, as a result, studs had reached a high .state of perfection. Eeferring to the suggestion ,of a writer in a Sydney paper that it might be desirable for the Commonwealth Government to prohibit the export of sheep to New Zealand, Mr. Richmond ; said this would be disastrous for "New 'Zealand breeders. "Our studs are so 1 extremcly small that it has been, and will continue to be, impossible to maintain them. in any satisfactory stato without continuous importations from Australia," he said. "Australia has nothing to" f ear from New Zealand and we hope our Government will continue to co-operate with us in seeing that the embargo is not imposed."