Stricter Enforcement Of Quarantine Regulations

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29849, 15 June 1962, Page 13

Stricter Enforcement Of Quarantine Regulations

Because New Zealand’s economy would be damaged if dangerous plant and animal diseases were allowed to come into the country, closer checks are being made of passengers' baggage at the Lyttelton wharves and at the Christchurch airport by inspectors of the Department of Agriculture working with Customs Department officers. The Minister of Agriculture (Mr Taiboys) recently emphasised the importance of ensuring that the greatest care was taken in checking that the quarantine regulations were not being broken, either on purpose or unwittingly, by persons arriving in New Zealand. Mr R. E. Yates, acting port agricultural inspector, said yesterday that to aid the port inspectors,, the Department of Agriculture had divided overseas countries into three groups. Group A consisted of 30 countries with no foot-and-mouth disease, group B contained 69 countries where there was a risk of animal disease, and group C contained 171 countries where animal diseases existed. Group A included Britain. Tasmania, and Fiji, group B America, Canada, and Australia, and group C all the African and Asian countries

The port inspectors in Christchurch did not face the same problems as inspectors at Auckland, because there was not the same volume of overseas passengers and most airline passengers to Christchurch came from Australia which was relatively clear of diseases, he said. At Whenuapai suspect articles found by inspectors included dressed poultry, boots, shoes, pork, saddles, sacks, salami, feathers, a snake skin, hams, horns, skins, a kangaroo’s tail, eggs, bacon, stuffed birds, shearing gear, tortoises, and turtles. Mr Yates said that the articles found at Christchurch recently were not as exotic as those found at Auckland. They included emu feathers, shearing gear, orange peel and lemons in ship’s stores which were diseased. boots and shoes, and some sacking.

Recently a consignment of chrysanthemums had to be destroyed because there were beetles in the flowers. If fruit, plants, and seeds were covered by a health certificate from the country of origin they were inspected at Christchurch and if free

of disease were allowed in. Mr Yates said that at Christchurch two of the most common pests that had to be checked were cockroaches in consignments of bananas and beetles in flowers. Particular attention was paid to the baggage of passengers who had come from or had passed through African countries. Quarantine regulations were not strictly enforced in those countries, and there was a real danger that foot-and-mouth disease and cattle tick could be introduced into New Zealand through the presence of diseases in particles of soil adhering to passengers' shoes. The usual method of cleaning the shoes was by washing them in a solution of washing soda. One avenue by which diseases could come into New Zealand was the sale of pets on ships by owners. This was forbidden by the law. and a close watch was kept on ships on which seamen had parrots as pets, in case they tried to sell them. The master of each ship on which there were pets had to give a £5O bond that the pets would not be sold in New Zealand, said Mr Yates.