SHEEP FAKING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10190, 16 March 1911, Page 5

SHEEP FAKING.

ATTITUDE,OF A. AND P.> ASSO-

CIATIONS,

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION

The matter of "faking" sheep for the show ring was referred to by Mr. C. A. J. Levt'tt in "his Presidential address to the Mana.watU'A. : and P. Association' on Tuesday.; He said that the committee of this Association- had in years the subject,-and unable,jto,"'dep ; line; for 'instance, '■ r i i the 1907 A. and P. Conference the matter was under notice by remit from Wairarapa, and the opinion of representatives) was as follows: Feilding said the difficulty was to know where trimming commenced and "where it left, off.. /The Hawked Bay £ind Otago. speakers thought it should be left to the judge. Masterton? suggested that if judges were; asked to disqualify undue trimming it might do good, but there were so many degrees of trimming that it made it difficult to decide. Manawatu said it was impossible to define trimming. The conference took no action in the matter; it has been left to the principal Associations to act. The 'Maaiawatii Association had a clause'.:—' "The giving of a prize to a sheep shall imply that the judges are satisfied that-such sheep is fairly shoi*n and fairly trimmed." Masterton. A. and *P. Association

;' have "a-somewhat similar clause,* also ,'■ 'several Associations. The Canterbury A. and P. Association's conditions for sheep state: "The judge -will be asked to go through the classes, an<F throw out all 1 sheep which they con-' • sitter unfairly shorn" or excessively trimmed. The giving of a prize to a sheep shall imply that the judges are satisfied that such sheep is not coloured by any artificial process." The Associations, he considered, were alive to the importance of the question,, and would not he found wanting to act in the best interests of the breeders. Mr R. S. Abraham said those who had brought up the matter deserved the thanks of the farming community. The Associations, however, could, not stop the practise.'. The only man who could! do so was the judge, arid i . it was a; very, difficult thing for a judge to do.