THE LATE SHEEP INSPECTOR.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1518, 25 October 1883, Page 2

THE LATE SHEEP INSPECTOR.

.. To the Editor. • . Sift,—ln the Daily of the 15th ' iiist. I saw your remarks re the late Sheep Inspector, It is not my place, nor do I feel inclined to criticise the action of the Government in. the matter of Mr Sutton's removal. As you have unintentionally stated that . which may not only give peeple a r wrong impression t)f what actually took , place when I held office as Sheep Inspector, but as some of your remarks , place Mr Druinmond in a false posi- , tion, I will endeavor to put the true '. state of the case before you. Those , who know Mr Drmnmontl, are sure I that he thoroughly understands hiß work, and will discharge the dutiesof his office strictly and impartially. Whatever it is possible for an Inspector to do towards clearing the district of scab, will be'dono by him! Mr Drummond had sole change of the i Whareama district from January « 1874 to Ist April 1879, a period of i five years. Onlst April 18791 took over the charge of the Whareama dis- > trict from Mr Drummond. The district was then supposed be virtually clean. Within seven weeks from that date, I had to cancel the clean certificates for six flocks south of the Whareama river. No blame could be attached to Mr- Drummond for that, as the same thing might have happened to any other Inspector. On the Ist December, 1879,1 roported to the Government that unless they acted on certain suggestions I made to clear Government bush of wild shoop, there would be a serious outbreak of scab . north of the Whareama river. They declined to interfere in the matter, the result being that within six months after my ■warning reached them, scab broke out on all the properties I had indicated, with a loss of thousands of pounds to the unfortunate sheep owners. When it will end no man can tell. It is Impossible even with an energetic Inspector like Mr Drummond, and' the great efforts sheep owners are now making to get the pest under, to clean tho district in two years. Should all the infected flocks obtain clean certificates within that time, there will be no certainty in such a rough country as the Ea&t Coast that the various runs are clean, unless the sheep oomo in clean from shearing to shearing. I am (Sic, Thos, W. Telpokd.