CASE FOR RECONSIDERATION

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 140, 10 December 1935, Page 8

CASE FOR RECONSIDERATION

The renewed appeal on behalf of British pig-breeders to the New Zealand Government to lift the embargo onthe importation of British bloodstock should stimulate a reconsideration at this end of the whole question of importing livestock from Britain. The breeders in Britain point out that the Dominions, could use the London quarantine station as an effective safeguard against the risk of disease and, though this argument has been used before, it has never been effectively disproved. Lord Bledisloe, himself a practical farmer and a specialist in pig-breeding, during his term of oflßce in the Dominion as Governor-General never tired of urging the necessity of introducing fresh blood into New Zealand sheep, cattle, and pigs, if standards were to be maintained. He was equally insistent that with the triple safeguard of quarantine at both ends and the long voyage between there was at the most an infinitesimal risk of any serious disease at the same time being introduced among New Zealand livestock. The farmers of this country have been uncertain in their attitude towards importation from Britain, some branches of the Farmers' Union being favourable, while others have rejected the proposal to lift the embargo. This policy appears shortsighted in the light of a consensus of expert opinion that fresh blood is needed. The new Minister of Agriculture, who is a farmer, will be able to bring a fresh mind to a study of all the pros and cons of the case and have the question of the maintenance or removal of the embargo reconsidered impartially in the best interests of the Dominion.: