BRANDING OF STOCK

Hokitika Guardian, 6 August 1926, Page 3

BRANDING OF STOCK

GOVERNMENT’S NEW PROVISIONS. WELLINGTON. Aug. 4. An almostTomplete overhaul ot the law relating to brands upon horses, sheep, cattle, and pigs is made in the Stock Amendment Bill introduced today. Part V. of the Stock Act, 1908, is repealed, and a new set of lequirenieuts is substituted. Brands ars to be registered by districts, and to secure registration they must be as follows :

For horses, a mark permanently applied 1.0 the skin; for cattle and pigs, an earmark with, at, the owner’s option, a mark permanently applied to „,. e skin; for stock, an earmark, with, at the owner’s option, one or more of the following: A wool mark, a metal ear-clip with a mark stamped thereon, a tattoo or fine mark on the face. All sheep must he branded with the owner’s registered brand, but the branding of other stock is not compnl-

sf>rv. Male animals to he earmarked on the right ear and females on the left. Every person who wilfully removes move than one fourth of the whole ear of any cattle or sheep, whether his own property or not, is liable to a fine of £lO and not less than 2s for each animal so treated. An earmark onge applied is not to he added to or altered, hut the free ear may he marked for private purposes, such as the recording of age. Anyone who alters, destroys, or defaces the registered brand upon any stock not his own is liable to two years' imprisonment or a fine of £oo and not less than £5 for each animal. For counterfeiting a brand the penalty is a fine ,of not less than £5 or more than £oo. Amended provision is made for the registration of standard marks to be used by societies for the improvement of stock, and provisions to a similar effect in the Stock Amendment Act. 1913. are repealed, marks registered thereunder being held valid if still in force.

Other clauses make it compulsory to dip all sheep yearly instead of longwool and cross-bred sheep only. On application from anv owner of stock, who has reason to believe that o.nv of the stock have strayed on to land occupied by any other person, an inspector may require such person to muster his stock for the identification and handing over of any stock belong-

ing to the applicant. In emergency a constable may order the detention of stock for not more than .seven days, pending tho inspector’s, decision. The owner of the stock on whom a notice is served may recover reasonable expenses from tbe applicant and compensation lor unavoidable damage caused in mustering.