SALE OF STOCK REMEDIES

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21010, 11 November 1933, Page 14

SALE OF STOCK REMEDIES

NECESSITY FOR CONTROL MINISTER GIVES EXAMPLES [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, November 10. In proof of the necessity for legislation to control the sale of stock remedies, the Hon. C. E. Macmillan, Minister for Agriculture, quoted to the House of Representatives this afternoon some startling samples of the kind of fraud that has been perpetrated at the expense of farmers and their stock. Mr Macmillan was moving the second reading of the Stock Remedies Bill, and he said his information had been collected over several years by ofricers of the Department of Agriculture. The rirst instance was "a preventive of fat lamb mortality," sold in Otago. A sample analysed was found to contain approximately 50 per cent, vegetable Dark (suggestive of willow or poplar), 44 per cent, common salt, and 6 per cent, ironsand. A small quantity of charcoal was also present. An examination of an alleged mamrnitis cure showed it consisted largely of cow manure, with peppermint added by way of disguise. Another mammhis cure sold in the Wairoa and Gisborne districts was made of impure pigs' lard, dissolved in kerosene and vinegar, with water, salt and sugar. The price charged for this mixture was £1 a gallon. An abortion remedy was found on analysis to consist of approximately 90 per cent, crude cane sugar, and 10 per cent, pollard and bran. It was sold at £1 a block. Another remedy consisted of the drug hexamine, which can be purchased at 3d an ounce, and it was being sold at 5s a capsule of a few grains. A mixture sold as a preventive of abortion and sterility was shown to consist mainly of fine bonemeal, with some common salt and colouring matter resembling brick dust. A concoction made lip of salt 90 per cent., ginger 8.5 per cent., and baking soda 1.5 per cent, sold at £1 a packet, and was said to be a cure for lungworm, congestion of the lungs, and general mortality in lambs. As an instance of the exhorbitant charges, the Minister quoted a mixture of copper sulphate, potash, alum, permanganate of potash, and earthy material, which was sold at £2 17s 6d a tin. Belladonna ointment w r as sold at 17s 6d for a small tin. Another mixture of an organic zinc compound with a dye substance and dried yeast was sold at £1 Is for two ounces. Thirty shillings a bottle was asked for turpentine and pine oil, with a small amount of boric acid. The Minister also referred to several of these remedies which had proved definitely injurious in their effects. Officers of the department, he said, had seen cows seriously injured by their application.