AN UNPROFITABLE VENTURE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXXI, Issue 7052, 23 October 1900, Page 4

AN UNPROFITABLE VENTURE.

A Taranaki farmer, whose name I will s&y is Trough — it will do just as well as his real one— saw what he thought to be a safe investment, and, with the i4ea that there was money in pigs, set about to extract the sovereigns from the swine. He got together a lot of well-bred pigs, and these were the beauty and admiration of his locality. In the { course of time the pigs became fat, and ( no wonder, because they were dieted on 1 tbe most liberal scale. " You have a fine lot of pigs. Trough ; I never saw better ; they are as even as eggs," said an enthusiastic neighbour. "I'es," proudly answered Trough, "I flatter myself they are good, and whoever gets them will get prize packets." Some little time after this, Trough sold his " prize packet " at a nice figure to a distant firm — at least be thought he had sold them — and he gleefully rubbed bis hands as he saw his thirty-two prime pigs carefully placed in a railway truck. A week later he got a letter, and, after reading it through, he felt as if he had fallen off his horse when out mustering cattle, and that every beast in the paddook had come up in single file and deliberately jumped on him. This is what the letter said: — •' Memorandum from Tamworth, Berk; shire and Co. To Mr Trough : Dear Bir,— With regard to the 32 pigs you consigned to us, we beg to state : (Ij 5 were above the maximum of our standard of weight; (2) 5 were below the minimum ; (3) 5 had had litters ; (4) 5 were practically stags; (5) 5 did not have the specified depth of fat on the ribs ; (6) 5 were lost between the railway station and (be slaughterhouse ; and (7)

2 complied with our conditions, for which we forward you our cheque. Kindly 'inform us what we are to do with the remainder, as our space is limited." Trough is now of the opinion that there is money in pigs, but he couldn't find it.

A Hawera settler complains that he went to a private sale a short time ago, and bought several cows. These were brought home, and a few days afterwards the Stock Inspector visited his farm and condemned two out of the number purchased. The settler in question told me the cattle were over the age for compensation to be paid, and he thought his case a very hard one. It does seem hard tbat a settler, having purchased stock at a sale, should immediately afterwards have some of the number condemned as being diseased, but the case lately decided fully proves that there is no redress for the purchaser who buys diseased stock. Some thing will have to be done to protect buyers in cases of this sort. In private sales, the cattle might be inspected prior to the sale, and a certificate of the good health of the herd given by the inspector ; in fact, it is a wonder that intending buyers do not ask whether the stock have been inspected. At regular auction sales such . a course would not be practicable, as the entries are drawn from all quarters. That a safeguard is necessary few will deny, and one way to protect buyers who pur* ebase diseased stock by mistake would be to make the sale of cattle suffering from tuberculosis void until the animals were passed by the inspector. Even if this course were followed, there would be difficulties in the way. The cattle might be turned out, and no opportunity for a thorough inspection present itself until some, time had elapsed, when the vendor might be out of tbe district, or say the cattle were healthy when sold; or, on the other hand, the diseased beast might pass through half a dozen hands before it was found to be affected. At all events, it is pretty evident that the law shquld be enforced in respect to the sale, and altered with regard to the purchase, of diseased cattle.

Kb roust not be construed from tbe foregoing remarks that disease is common in our herds. Quite the opposite ; the district is practically clean, thanks to the work of Mr Orbell, the late stock inspector, who had to take stringent effective measures to check tuberculosis when it was rife, and who also had to battle against the sceptics who did not believe the disease existed. It is the isolated cases chat now bring the disease so prominently befote the public; settlers will not keep cattle affected, and so real is the individual effort to stamp out the disease that the stock inspector is repeatedly asked to inspect doubtful animals. Thus, when cattle affected are purchased by the unwary, a good deal is heard of the injustice of having to pay for a beast that was affected with tuberculosis at the time it was sold. Were the law altered, the settler might fancy he was badly dealt with in having to* refund the price received for a diseased beast, but should also bear in mind that he might be in tbe same position as tbe buyer at a future time.