CATTLE TICK MENACE.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1921, Page 8

CATTLE TICK MENACE.

DEPARTMENT’S ACTIVITIES.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF DIPS. The need for stringent precautions against the spread of cattle tick is mentioned in the annual report of the Department of Agriculture. Mr. A. R. Young. o( the live stock division, reports as follows: During the year the regulations for the control of cattle tick have been much more stringently enforced than during the previous year, and the construction of cattle dips in the tick-in-fected areas has been considerably accelerated in consequence. The Government subsidy of £ for £ up to £l5O toward the construction of public cattle dips, which are erected in conformity with the Government plans and specifications. has been approved in connection with 34 dips. Of this number 19 have already been completed, seven are in course of construction, and work has not yet commenced on the remaining eight. The plan on which the dips are being built has given general satisfaction, and those so far completed have been erected in a satisfactory manner.

Stock owners auctioneering companies in the tick-Infested areas have co-operated well with the department s officers in fighting the tick pest, and every endeavor will be made to ensure a continuation of this desirable condition. The practice of passing all cattle through a dip immediately piror to their being offered for sale at public auction has become practically universal in the badly infested areas, and is freely submitted to by stock owners, notwithstanding that there is no provision in the regulations enforcing such practice. The beneficial effect dipping has on the general health and welfare of the cattle, quite outside its tick-killing qualities, is being recognised and appreciated by stock owners. During the past year advantage has been taken of every available source of information for the purpose of ascertaining as accurately as possible just what 10-adties are affected with tick, and our knowledge on this point is now fairly accurate. The necessity for strengthening and enlarging the scope of the regulations has been recognised, and the defining of areas for the better control of the tick within those areas and ■for the protection of clean districts is also being carefully gone into, and recommendations regarding new or amending regulations toward this end will shortly be submitted.