REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON SCAB AND CATARRH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 88, 11 September 1852, Page 5

REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON SCAB AND CATARRH.

We extract from the Melbourne Argus the following report of a Committee, appointed by the Legislative Assembly of Victoria, to enquire into the diseases in sheep, &c, as we cousider it may prove of service to the stock-owners who have advertised a meeting to consider that and other subjects affecting their interests, on Wednesday next, at Christehurch. " The Select Committee appointed on the 2nd of July instant, " to enquire into the state of the Laws for the prevention of the Diseases in Sheep known as Catarrh and Scab, and to Report if any, and what further provisions are required to check the spread of those diseases, with power to take evidence thereon," have agreed to the following Report. " Your Committee regret to state that the diseases Catarrh and Scab in Sheep, more especially the latter, have increased lately to an extent that threatens serious consequences to the Export of Wool, and to the supply of provisions for our increasing population : this in-

crease of disease is owing to several causes, some of which your Committee are desirous of detailing to your Honorable House. 1. The alarming deficiency in the supply of Shepherds, and of other persons required in the management and care of Sheep, has involved the necessity on the part of the Sheep owner of increasing the size of his flocks to an unmanageable extent, and in many cases of turning them adrift upon his run; the former course being, in the opinion of your Committee, a fertile cause of disease ; and both causes rendering it impossible to afford that care, supervision, and employment of curative means, always required to prevent the catching and the spread of disease. .2. The absence of a system of general branding, especially of diseased Sheep, by rendering the identity of ownership difficult of proof, has produced a carelessness, and want of caution opthe part of proprietors of such stock, highly conducive to the propagation of infection. 3. The inefficiency of the present law, in deterring persons from travelling with diseased stock, and in no provision being made in it, for dealing with infected Sheep under such cir-» cumstances; this latter defect is productive of most disastrous results, for unsound sheep are j now allowed to pass on their way, even when i every step they take is fraught with mischief, \ and ruin to the stockholder. A pecuniary fine, and in default, a small term of imprisonment, being the only punishment attached to such a destructive proceeding. Your Committee are aware of many instances where one flock of diseased Sheep, thus allowed to move on, for want of the power of preventing them, has spread disease along a line of country of great extent, in each case inflicting a damage upon property to an enormous amount, and to which the value of the infected flock, relatively speaking, was as nothing. Your Committee, therefore, recommend to your honorable House, that the present law be repealed, and that a new and more stringent Act be passed, providing, amongst other measures, for— 1. The general branding of all Sheep by the first of March, 1853. 2. The immediate branding of diseased Sheep. 3. The infliction of a severe punishment on persons driving diseased Stock through the Colony, by making it a misdemeanour. 4. The destruction of diseased sheep, found travelling. 5. A compulsory Registry of Brands, and of Notices of the appearance of disease, at the Police Offices, of Police Districts. And your Committee trust, that provisions of this nature in addition to those contained in the present Act, will prove efficacious in checking the spread of these destructive diseases. Francis Morphy, Chairman.