Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, APRIL 29, 1935. BAN ON STOCK IMPORTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 167, 29 April 1935, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, APRIL 29, 1935. BAN ON STOCK IMPORTS.

The Mid-Canterbury Executive of the Farmers’ Union has adopted the wise course in reaffirming its opposition to the direct importation of stock from Britain while foot-and-mouth disease is prevalent in the Home country. Much has been said by advocates of free entry, regarding the capability of the expert advisers of the Government to determine whether it is safe for the Dominion to open its doors wide, but the mere fact that the Minister seeks the opinion of those interested in stock-raising indicates that there is an element of doubt. And in the case of such a dread disease an element of doubt should not exist; so far as is humanly possible there should be no possibility of infection. The arguments in support of removal of the embargo are much the same as those used when similar proposals were made by a previous Minister in 1927 and the Board of Agriculture in 1931. On the latter occasion the system of quarantine at the British end, of which Mr Macmillan now makes so much, was in operation. On both occasions the proposals were not proceeded with, the Government maintaining the embargo. Has the Government in the interval obtained more light on the subject of foot-and-mouth disease, against the risk of which it has maintained the embargo for so many years? The difficulty of dealing with the disease when once it has gained a foothold is demonstrated by the experience of Britain, where stringent regulations have been in force for years. Under these there has been enforced, among other things, an order prohibiting all transfers of cattle, sheep, pigs and goats from district to district, except by license. The authorities have striven to stamp out infection by slaughtering all contacts as well as infected stock. Despite diligent research there is no undoubted evidence in explanation of the recurrence of the disease or of the positive identity of the agency of its transmission. Until the secrets of its causation have been revealed and more reliable means devised to prevent its introduction, the Dominion must steadily preserve its immunity without regard to cost or inconvenience. Mr Macmillan explains that the matter will be raised next month at the negotiations in London regarding meat. The suggestion cannot be escaped that the lifting of the embargo would be a useful pawn in the hands of New Zealand s representatives. Such a consideration should never be allowed to influence a question upon which depends the health and Welfare of the Dominion s great pastoral industry. Other branches are affected besides meat, which represents only one-fourth at most of exports. The question of lifting or retaining the embargo must be decided on its merits, without reference to passing negotiations. The effective argument in quashing previous attempts to end the ban was the report of renewed outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain. The same reason weighs against the present proposal. It is a case in which prevention is better than cure; whatever evil arises from restrictions must be borne lest worse befall us.