DEPLETED STOCKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 June 1938, Page 4

DEPLETED STOCKS

PROBLEM IN THE WAIKATO. RAVAGES OF FACIAL ECZEMA. (By Telegraph —Press Association). HAMILTON, June 17. Grave losses having been suffered by sheep-farmers in the Waikato through the ravages of facial eczema, the task of replenishing the depleted flocks has become a problem which threatens to prove difficult to solve. The assistance of the Government has again been sought, this time in the form of concessions in railway freights on consignments of healthy stock which are being brought into the Waikato from the unaffected areas of Hawke's Bay, Taranaki. Manawatu, the King Country, and North Auckland. Thousands of sheep have already been trucked into the half-bare farms of the Waikato and placed upon properties where in some cases more than 50 per cent of the flocks have been wiped out. , Reference to the attestation required from farmers who apply for loans from the Government to replace stock lost through facial eczema was made by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. W. Lee Martin, today. He said the form was a . standard Treasury form of application for assistance. The printer’s mark showed that 5000 copies were printed in 1936. It was the form used in cases of floods, fires, and disasters of all descriptions. The applicant was required to certify that he was unable to meet his loss, or repair damage suffered without the assistance applied for.

No objection to this attestation had been taken in previous cases, the usual view being that the word “unable” was governed by the implied word “reasonably,” Mr Martin said. He was asking the Treasury whether this could not be explicitly stated and not merely implied, but in the meantime his advice to sufferers was to fill in the form as though this word had been inserted. Instancing the willingness of the Government to co-operate. Mr Lee Martin said that last Friday he informed the Prime .Minister that £lOOO was needed to make a start with the investigation work, and this amount was granted immediately. He pointed out that £B5OO was required for his department and £l5OO for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, which would be a charge against the Department of Agriculture.