Hearing of potato cyst case starts

Press, 3 December 1982, Page 3

Hearing of potato cyst case starts

Wellington reporter Actions by three North Canterbury farmers seeking damages totalling more than $300,000 from the Government, for having their properties wrongly declared as infested with potato cyst nematode in 1975, began in the High Court in Wellington yesterday. The actions are before Mr Justice Savage. The hearing is expected to last about five days. Newlands Park, Ltd, Murray Baxter, Stuart Baxter, and Peter Herbert William Stafford have taken actions against . Malcolm Leitch Cameron, the Director-Gen-eral of Agriculture and Fisheries, and Alan Tutton Johns, a former director-general, over actions taken against them by the Ministry in 1975. At the time of the potato cyst nematode outbreak in North Canterbury in 1975, a number of farms were declared infected properties. Under a declaration, potatoes must not be grown until 15 years after the last positive sample test. The applicants are seeking a four-part declaration from the High Court: A declaration that theirs was not land on which potato cyst nematode was found; that there was no reason to believe that the land might be infected with potato cyst nematode; a declaration that the previous declarations that their land was infected are null and void; and an order quashing the previous declarations. Mr Stafford is a farmer on 87ha at West Melton. He seeks general damages of $157,600, calculated on the basis of $81,600 for past

losses, $56,000 for future losses, and $26,000 in damages for stress and ill-health, plus costs. The Baxters are a father and son farming 170 ha at Darfield on a property owned by Newlands Park, Ltd. Together, they claim damages of $6839, plus $45,126 for past losses and $22,000 for future losses, and costs. Murray Baxter, the father, also claims $50,000 general damages in compensation for stress and illhealth, while the company seeks $25,000 in general damages for the devaluation of the land. The applicants (Mr J. G. Fogarty) claim that their livelihood as producers of grade 1 seed potatoes was damaged by wrongful declaration that they had potato cyst nematode on their properties. Expert witnesses will be called by the applicants, and also by the Crown (Mr K. D. Stone), over the next five days to establish whether the procedures followed by the Ministry of Agriculture to establish an outbreak were adequate, and whether the procedures were followed correctly. Much of this will be technical evidence by Ministry of Agriculture and D.S.I.R. scientists. If it is found that the Crown is not vicariously liable, the High Court will still be asked to decide on claims against the. other respondents. The Attorney-General is the first respondent, representing the Crown. The others are Colin James Moyle (Auckland), former Minister of Agriculture; Alan Tutton Johns (Wellington),

former Director-General of Agriculture; and Kenneth Clarence Durrant (Wellington), former Deputy Direc-tor-General. Mr Fogarty said that for the High Court to decide whether the declarations of infestation were justified or proper it was necessary to consider the characteristics of the pest, how to identify it, and to decide whether the personnel involved could be relied upon for an accurate identification. The applicants maintain that the work was for an expert — “not separating tennis balls from golf balls,” Mr Fogarty said. There was also considerable potential for error through contamination of samples in the field, and carrying them from one farm to another; from contamination in the laboratory from other samples; and from testing methods used in the laboratory. Potato cyst nematode had a cyst about the size of a pinhead, barely visible to the naked eye, he-said. Cooking the cyst for two hours at lOOdeg. C. was likely to desiccate the cyst as well as kill the 500 or so eggs inside, and so subtly alter its shape. This method of sterilising the sample had been abandoned by the Ministry since its use in 1975. Mr Fogarty said that little expertise was available in 1975. The potato cyst nematode had been found in 1972, and regulations governing it introduced in 1974.. There was also the risk of monotony from one person peering through a microscope all day at dozens of samples and eventually losing concentration.