RAIL TRANSPORT OF CATTLE

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28099, 15 October 1956, Page 8

RAIL TRANSPORT OF CATTLE

COMPLAINT ABOUT CASUALTIES

(New Zealand Press Association) HASTINGS, October 14. When 40 cattle were railed from Central Hawke’s Bay to north of Dargaville by the Railways Department, only 17 were alive on arrival, and some of the survivors were injured and subsequently died. This information was given to the provincial executive of Federated Farmers in Hastings. The meeting was considering a branch remit asking the executive to. take up with the Railways Department “the need for improving conditions for livestock travelling by by rail, in view of thr recent tragedy at Himatangi railway station, when cows were found trampled to death in railway waggons.” One cow had to be destroyed and two others attended to by a veterinarian in the Palmerston North railway yard yesterday after they had collapsed in their trucks while on their way from Featherston to Longburn. The consignment consisted of 29 head of Black Polled Angus cows, most of them heavily in calf, and they were in three waggons. The cattle were loaded at Featherston at 9 a.m. on Friday, and left at 11.36 a.m. They arrived at Palmerston North at 10.55 p.m. During a routine inspection the cattle were found to be down and the waggons were immediately taken to the stock yard.