THE OUTBREAK OF PLEUROPNEUMONIA. Public Meeting at Ohaupo.

Waikato Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1222, 29 April 1880, Page 2

THE OUTBREAK OF PLEUROPNEUMONIA. Public Meeting at Ohaupo.

A public meeting, convened by Mr D. AfcNicol, Vice-President of the Central Waikato Agricultural Association, for the purpose of taking into consideration the question of the advisability of the appointment of a separate Cattle Board for the district of Waipa, and generally to devise means for the protection of the settlers agaiust pleuro-pneuinonia, was held at Ohaupo on Tuesday, immediately after Mr IJuokland's sale. About 50 settlers attended, and - On the motion of Mr S. Steele, seconded by Mr Germann, Mr D. Caley was called upon to preside. The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, said those present who had prepared resolutions for submission to the meeting would no doubt fully explain the object they had in view in calling them together. He then read the advertisement calling the meeting and a telegram from Mr Whitaker, M.H.R., regretting that urgent business prevented his being present, but assuring the meeting that he would do his utmost to further any decision they might arrive at. In order to expedite business as much as possible he called on the gentleman who had the first resolution to move to come forward. Mr H. Roche said the first resolution had been entrusted to him. He felt somewhat nervous in bringing the South Auckland Cattle Board to task, and hoped ho would not get the pleuro through it. The resolution h3 had to move was as follows :—: — That in the opinion of this meeting the South Auckland Cattle Board do not act wisely in declaring the whole of the "Waipa county an infected district, while only one farm in the district had been pro\ ed to have the disease upon it ; and that in the opinion of this meeting it is most desirable that the South Auckland Cattle District be divided by the Waikato River, and another Board for the western part of the distric t constituted ; and, further, that this meeting begs te recommend certain gentlemen as members of such Board. He wished to say a few words in support of the motion. He had had a good deal of experience in the matter on the meat contract when the troops were in Auckland some years ago, in conjunction with Mr Storey and others, and his opinion was that, with due precautionary measures, the disease would not live in this country. It was not necessary to take extreme measures. The public were apt to be too zealous in the matter, and by so doing they might inflict such inconvenience on people as would be worse than a visitation of the pleuro itself. He thought it would be better to have a Board on the spot than at Cambridge, because the members would be more likely to see that no unnecessary restrictions were put upon the surrounding settlers ; because there was a rotten plank in the ship the whole vessel had been condemned. He understood that at the meeting of the Cattle Board at which the resolution to declare the Waipa County infected had been arrived at, only two members were present ; but he thought that an important measure of that sort should not have been carried without the concurrence ot the full Board. In a large portion [of the district so proclaimed not a vestige of the disease existed, and to compel people in such districts to enclose* their cattle when they had no feed for them simply meant ruin to many of them. There was certainly no necessity for such a measure as this, although he approved of the action of the Board as applied to infected districts. During the time of the war hundreds of cattle passed through his hands which were more or less diseased ; no precautionary measures were taken, and yet the disease died out. If it had lived there would have been virus in the country sufficient to last for oO years. But in the course of a year or so there was nothing left of it. He was certainly in favour of stopping importation and thought all the imported cattlo and tho'-e which had come in oontact with them should be isolated, and above all he would stop inoculation. In Australia inoculation might be necessary, but it certainly was not ni this "ccTmtryr — rre — mwi--nnreiy-passed through the Eureka Estate, and remained to dinner at the station, where by-the-by he was placed very considerably below the salt, and had been tokl that the whole of the Company's cattle — some 2300 in number — were being inoculated. That meant of course that they would have the disease communicated to them ! in a mild form and the place must therefore have become a perfect pest, enough to infect the whole country for miles round. He thought the proposed Board would be a great boon to the settlers. It would cost no money and the members could go around the district and see where the restrictions might be taken off. He reminded them of the old adage " Give a dog a bad name &c. " and pointed out that many parts of the country were buffering unjustly owing to the proclamation. Before he sat down he would like to say a few words about the Swamp Company They went to Australia, ami brought a curse into the country. They had gone on inoculatiog in. direct violation of the expressed wishes of the Cattle Board, and had in consequence given the disease to their other cattle, and all the harm he wished them was that the whole of their herd would die. Mr Lake thought Mr Roche ought to divide his resolution into two. The parts were totally distinct, and if divided he would second the latter portion. Mr Gei'mann seconded the resolution on condition that it was put to the meeting in two parts. Mr John Fisher did not think the motion before them was a truthful statement. Move than one farm was infected, an<l Mr Burke for instance had several farms in the district, and drove cattle from one to the others. It was from Mr Burkes farm at Pultorimu that the cases I came, which decided the Board in its action regarding the proclamation of the | Waipa as an infected district. He sym- | pathised very much with Mr McNi col, but i the Board were bound to accept the opinion of the Veterinary surgeon appointad by the Government. Mr. Roche himself had admitted that prevention is better than cure and this was the light in which the matter was looked at by the Board. When Mr Fantham first brought forward his scheme at the Farmer's Club, he opposed him bo cause it had not been proved that the disease existed ; but now that it had been proved to exist beyond a doubt, he thoroughly supported the Board in their action. It was only right that the whele county should be proclaimed. At Ngahinipouri and other places where the disease did not exist, the Board did not intend to be over stringent, and the rangers had been instructed merely to keep the stray cattle, as much as possible, off the public roads. He was convinced that the Board, instead of acting in opposition to the inj terests of the settlers, had adopted an upright course, and were working earnestly for the benefit of the whole district. j Mr Lake agreed cordially with Mr Fi&her, and wished he had put his remarks into the form of a negative proposition, when he would have been glad to be his seconder The Board .would not have beeen worthy of their confidence had they not acted stringently, and he only regretted that they had not decided on their present course of action long before they did. Mr Burko thought Mr Fisher should have confined himself to the truth. He had driven no cattle backwards and forwards between his farms at Te Awamutu and Pukerimu since he bought the imported cattle. Mr Fishor said he had understood as inuoh from Mr Burke himself.

Mr Burke said Mr Fisher must have entirely miannderstood him. He certainly could not have told him anything of the kind. Mr Fisher in that case begged to withdraw the statement affecting Mr Burke. Mr Higginson said he had known the two cows of Mr Burkes found to be diseased. They were on the Pukerimu farm before the Australian cattle were imported, and had not been off it since. Vlr Germann said he understood the whole country had been proclamed at the request of the Pukerimu settlers. If those people were so anxious to have their district declared infected they ought to have made the boundaries of their district coterminous with those of the Pukekura Highway District. There they had paddocks within which to enclose their cattle, but there were thousands of acres unfenced in other portions of the county which formed the only grazing grounds for the cattle of a number of small settlers. It was doing such people a great injury to compel them to enclose their stock, and only two members of the ' Board had been present when this important step was taken. Mr Fisher intimated that the remaining members of the Board had duly ratified the action of their colleagues in this matter. He was sure that no undue pressure would be brought to bear on the Waipa who depended on the run. The rangers were only instructed to keep the cattle within certain limits, and he was certain that nothing harsh would be done. The Chairman put the first part of the motion, that relating to the action of the South Auckland Cattle Board, to the meeting, when it was earned, a number of gentlemen declining to vote one way or the other. Mr Roche then moved the second portion of the resolution, which was carried without discussion, a considerable number of those present again abstaining from voting. The meeting then proceeded to nominate a Board, and the following gentlemen were proposed : — Messrs. Hutchison, Hume, German, and Hadfield. Home difficulty was experienced in getting a fifth name, as Messrs. Storey, Buttle, John Fisher, W. Scott, W. Taylor, D. Caley, A. Wallace, Parsons, Wainwright, and others declined to act. Mr Lake said they did -not seem to be ready with the names of those they wished to be on the Board, and he would move that the meeting stand adjourned for a month. By that time all the restrictions would probably be removed and they could start fair. Mr Wainwright seconded the motion. At this point Mr Sage nominated Mr Roche as a member of the proposed Board, and Mr Lake's motion was allowed to lapse. Mr* Lake then moved the following :—: — That in the opinion of this meeting the Cattle Board was not justified in declaring Mr llcNicol'b place infected after a beast had been killed and no e\ idencc ot disease disco\ ered, and th.it in the opinion of this meeting: the proclamation should be at once remoied from this property, unless further e\ idencc be forthcoming. He related the circumstances connected Avith the killing of Mr McNicol's beast, which our readers are already acquainted with, and declared that in his own and the opinion of a number of settlers and others present — most of whom were acquainted with the disease — the beast was perfectly clean. He considered the action of Mr Naden most unwarrantable, and thought he should be called on to substantiate his charges. The motion was seconded by Mr A, Bruce and carried unanimously. The chairman expressed his entire concurrence in the terms of die resolution. He thought the veterinary surgeon had acted very reprcheimvely Mr Fisher said Mr McNichol should have brought his complaint to the Board where it would have received every attention. At present they had only hearsay testimony. On the motion of Mr Grermann. it waa l v»^^—^-'*^~^crririrrTr-T5DpTe!5 or the resolutions to the Chairman of the South Auckland Cattle Board, and to Mr F. A. Whitaker, the member for the district. The customary vote of thanks to the chair having* been passed the meeting broke up.