Stock Imports

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 10, 5 October 1937, Page 9

Stock Imports

SHOULD EMBARGO CONTINUE? Argument in Favour of Lifting BRITISH VIEWPOINT "These are facts, you cannot get away from them, and I feel sure that if they were more widely known we would soon get the embargo lifted," remarked Mr C. R. Edgecombe, president of the Hawke's Bay provxncxal executive of the Farmers'. Union when, at the monthly meeting in Hastings, he fead an articie from an English rnagazine on the subject of New Zealand's restrictions on the importing of cattle from Great Britain through fear of foot-and-mouth disease. At the conclusion of the paper, members discussed various aspects ^ of the problem, after which the decision was reached to make the facts of the case known to the branches. The articie quoted, Mr Edgecombe said, mentioned indisputable facts Avhich were a convinciug argument in favour of the lifting of the restrictions — a course of which he was etrongly in favour.

* "I am sure there would be a greater realisation of the position if this argument couia be brought before the public," he added, "and I would like to have a resolution that the Press be asked to publish the articie I have just read to you." This Tesolution was carried unanimously. The extract read by Mr Edgecombe, which was taken from an English journal, the Aberdeen-Angus revicw, stated: — . . "What has become known as the New Zealand embargo against the importation of pedigree stock from Great Britnin«has been under the consideration of various breed societies. Ropresentations have been made on different occasions on behalf of the AberdeenAngus Cattle Society and, as an outcome of discussions at the meeting of the council of the society and at the annual general meeting last February, a further memorandum on the subject was prepafed for submission in responsiblo quarters. Not One Oase in Nine Years. "In the memorandum it was pointed out that a quarantine station was provided at the London docks, where cattle and other pedigree stock for export could be quarantined under the supervision of the Minietry of Agriculture of Great Britain before shipment. This station was provided to facijitate a more or less fegular export* of stock to Dominions and Colonies requiring sucli, and to obviate the periodical stoppage of this export trade at such times as intermittent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease occurred in Great Britain. "The quarantine station was inaugurated on April 4, 1928, and the total number of animals exported through it up to February 4, 1937, is 4,385. The countri.es to which export was made, though not necessarily the fmal destination of the animals, were Antigua, Australia, Barbadoes, Canada, Cyprus, Gold Coast, Irish Free State, Northern Ireland, Nigeria, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Palestine, Union of South Africa, South-West Africa and Trinidad. "During that period, and despite the large numbers dealt with, not a single case of. foot-and-mouth disease has broken out either in the station or among the animals that have passed through it. Every cattle-raising Dominion and Colony within the Empire has accepted the quarantine station as a medium for the exportation of cattle and other pedigree stock, with the sole exeeption of New Zealand. "It is xecognised that the stockbreeders and farmers of New Zealand have every right to ask their Government to take all reasonable precautions against the risks of importing such a disease as foot-and-mouth; but it is submitted that New Zealand's continued adherence to a poliey that has the practical effect of excluding British stock from that country except under conditions which virtually amount to an embargo, is quito unreasonable and without justifieation, having regard to the ascertained facts since the opening of the quarantine station. "Risks Do Not Exist." "It is well to recall that no animals are qualified for admission to the station unless they come from premisos in Great Britain situated outside a radius of 15 miles from any place on which foot-and-mouth disease, cattle plague, Or pleuro-pneumonia has been certified to exist during the preeeding three months, and unless the animals to be exported and all other animals on the premises from .which they have been brought have been examined by a veterinary inspector of the Ministry of Agriculture immediately before movement into the quarantine station and certified by him to be free from the diseases mentioned. Similarly all fodder or litter supplied for the uso of the animals during the quarantine poriod, and during the voyage, must be obtained from .districts (in Great Britain) certified by the Ministry to have been free from foot-and-mouth disease for at least three months. "It is within our knowledge that New Zealand breeders of pedigree stock, more especially of beef breeds of cattle, are anxious to havo cattle from the United Kingdom for the maintenance and improvement of their herds. Eesolutions to this effcefr have been lodged by breed societies in New Zealand, with the Government of that country, and responsible veterinary officers have similarly represented to the Government that tho risks of recognising the quarantine station and importing cattle through it are infinitesimal. "We would go further and say that they do not exist, having regard on the oue hand to the period of incubation for foot-and-mouth disease and, on ihe other, to tho isolu'ioji all'orded by the dctention in the quai anthie station, and by tho voyage froin Great Britain to New Zealand. "The irritation with which British breeder§ of pedigree stock regard the ■

continued refusal of New Zealand to remove the restrictions complained of is greatly aggravated by the fact that substantial numbers of pedigree cattle have of late been imported into New Zealand from certain other countries which have maintained a more or less regular trade in pedigree cattle from Great Britain and especially from Scotland. It is regarded as altogether invidious that New Zealand, while refusing to admit cattle from Great Britain should, at the same time be importing cattle from countries which admit cattle from this country (Great Britain), and this altogether apart from the effective safeguard which tho British quarantine station system provides in the case of exports from Great Britain. "Breeders of pedigree stock in this country are at a loss to understand this policy being maintained by New Zealand, and it is not unnatural that they should view with great concern the continued refusal of New Zealand to remove the restrictions and the recurring importations of stud stock from other countries on the one hand, and tho constant effort on the part of New Zealand to secure an extension of her market for chilled beef and other agricultural produce in Great Britain on the other hand. "It is believed that these aspects of the questiom have only to be pointed out to the authorities in New Zealand, and at the same time referenee made to the complete safeguard which the quarantine station has proved over the period of its existence to secure that New Zealand may fall into life with the oth«r Dominions and Colonies within the Empire," concludes the writer of this articie.