RINDERPEST QUARANTINE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LII, Issue 8479, 28 December 1923, Page 3

RINDERPEST QUARANTINE

A ust.—N.2. Cable Assoc. Rcc. Dec. 27, 8,45 a.m. Perth, Dec. 27. Dairymen and fruit and vegetable growers in the rinderpest quarantined area, are up in arms owing to the strict enforcement of the regulations. The public are- also somewhat sore as a result cf shortened supplies of milk, fruit and vegetables. Some dairymen, in spite of a definite official pronouncement that the disease is rinderpest, are not satisfied, and claim that the disease is caused by a germ causing wasting in the cattle, but not the 'dread disease. They also complain at the wholcsa’e l destruction of cattle without' previously trying less stringent methods. Cruelty in slaughtering the cattle is alleged. It is stated that in one case three hundred rounds of ammunition were fired to kill forty cows. Some slaughtering parties, visiting and destroying all the cattle within a mile radius of the scene of the outbreak, to make a buffer between affected cattle and the dean areas, were given a lively time, as well as these confiscating fruit and vegetables in the prescribed areas, angry crowds of settlers demonstrating against the invaders, who leave behind them smouldering carcases in place of flourishing dairies. The demands for compensation are likely to- b& sirongly pressed. Rec. Dec. 27. 11.-15 a.m. Melbourne, Dec. 27.

The Commonwealth Government has decided that the* amount of com pensation in connection with the rinderpest outbreak will be borne equally by the Commonwealth and the Wes tra lia n Go venunents.