Harmful Publicity At Empire Exhibition

Northern Advocate, 30 August 1938, Page 11

Harmful Publicity At Empire Exhibition

Recently the president of the New Zealand Sheep Breeders’ Association referred to the harmful publicity that had been given to the facial eczema outbreak, and slated that any publicity in the British Press would not be to the advantage of New Zealand. Well, publicity has been given in some sections of the British Press with a vengeance. and this Dominion’s boast of being a practically disease-free country may not carry the same weight as previously ‘writes our well-known farming contributor. Mr C. E. Cuming). This fact will certainly not help the Meat Board’s advertising campaign in Britain. The following remarks comprise an extract from an

j article that appeared in a recent issue |of the “Scottish Farmer": —“Do you | know what facial eczema is? It is a disease of sheep. . But it is unknown in Britain. That fact must be very annoying to the persons responsible for arranging the Pavilion of British Agriculture at the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow. They have had to content themselves with a stuffed Jamb that has suffered from liver ret. and some toy farms and diagrams and printed cards telling things about worms and lamb dysentry and suchlike troubles. These common complaints, however, do not lend themselves to a really lurid display as fowlpox does in the case of poultry. They only succeed in reminding the great consuming public—to whom the British sheep feeders wish to sell tlfeir lamb and mutton —that British flocks do suffer from these complaints. Facial eczema would have given them the opportunity for putting up a really ghastly and repulsive display. But as we have stated, there is no. facial eczema in Britain, so the animal disease men have not the opportunity of telling the public about it. It is a New Zealand disease.

No Affected Carcases. “ ‘Well,’ you may ask, if it is a New Zealand disease, what does it matter though it is not found fn Britain? This is an Empire Exhibition, and New Zealand is part of the Empire. We have just to step across to the New Zealand pavilion and We’ll learn all about it.’ But you don’t. When you enter the door you look along and see a white lamb set up on a pedestal. This will be a lamb- affected with facial eczema, you will say to yourself; but you will see that there is nothing wrong with it. Then you notice that the pedestal rises up from the centre of a beautiful model meadow of luscious pasture dotted all over with model lambs. But these animals are evidently not suffering from any disease. They look very healthy. Then you notice the rows of dead carcaaes hanging all around the central pedestal—not real ones, but wax models. But you realise that these do not represent the carcases of sheep that have died from disease. They are models of first-class carcases that would tempt you to ask for some chops or a gigot when you go to the butcher’s. And there is nothing in print to tell you about facial eczema, so you discover when you manage to force your way through the crowd of Glasgow stoppers who are buying New Zealand cheese and New Zealand condensed milk and New Zealand bacon and ham and New Zealand tinned meat and tinned lambs’ tongues. The only printed notices you see are notices telling you how good New Zealand lamb and all other kinds of New Zealand produce are, and to ask for them in the shops. Evidently the New Zealand people have not made full use of their opportunities. Perhaps the research workers of New Zealand are not competent to put up a really attractive display of diseased animals and diseased meat; or perhaps the New Zealand authorities take a real interest in the welfare of their farmers, and when it comes to an Empire Exhibition keep their research workers under leek and key so as to allow full scope fo their marketing staffs, who only put in the shop-window their very best products, and make an effort to sell it and extend the market for it, and increase the demand for the goods that their farmers produce. And, of course, disease is no good for that.

Consumer No Wiser

“So you are no wiser about facial eczema than you were before you came into, the New Zealand pavilion; although you may have learned something about how to show 'off farm and dairy produce to the best advantage, and how the consumers will respond if they are asked to. buy samples of products attractively displayed. If you really want to know something about facial eczema, you will need to go to a quiet part of the , exhibition grounds, pay tw-oponce for the right to sit for four hours on a chair, shut your eyes and try to imagaino what the New Zealand pavilion would be like if the British disease-workers had got the job of arranging it. In that case, when you went in at the door you would see, not an attractive lamb on a pedestal, but a sickly-iooking animal in poor condition and its face a mass of scabs. And it would have been surrounded by a lot of yellow, putrifying carcases and the wlr:io place plastered ever with notices in big print like the following:—Do you know that facial eczema has decimated the flocks and herds of the Waikato within a few weeks? Do you know that in March and April, 27.000 sheep

and lambs affected with facial eczema ;were killed and condemned for human consumption in Auckland? Do you know that facial eczema bears a clinical similarity to an obscure ailment known as Weil’s disease, which j occurs sometimes among humans? Do j you know that both troubles possess the same symptoms of cirrhosis of the liver, jaundice, and various skin manifestations? Do you know that facial eczema is only an outward expression cf an inward disease, a cirrhosis of the livei', associated with the wasting of that important organ. Do you know that indications of jaundice may have been noticed by housewives in yellow fat and yellow meat sold in the past few months? Do you know that one Waikato farmer who had 4000 sheep when the outbreak began in January had none left at the end of April? Do you know that another farmer lost his entire sheep flock and cattle herd? Do you know that an infected cow had her liver enlai'ged from 101 b to 251 b? Do you know ,that the meat of animals infected with facial eczema cannot be used as food, as the disease causes it to discolour, giving it a jaundiced appearance? And so on; along with pictures and specimens of the faces, wool and livers of diseased sheep. It is queer hoxv things are sc ill-divided, not only among persons but among nations. There, on the one hand, is New Zealand with a disease that decimates flocks and herds, and no officials who can advertise it to the world; and here, on the other hand, is Britain with a staff of officials who specialise in advertising our diseases to the world —and no facial eczema to advertise.”

New Zealand v. British Policies,

"Of course, the persons in charge of the New Zealand pavilion do not advertise facial eczema, and quite right too. They are there to advertise New Zealand farm produce among the people of Great Britain. They do this wery effectively by means of magnificent displays of their very best products, even in a year when New Zealand has heavy local losses from facial eczema—the number of animals actually affected is probably very much less than one per cent, of the livestock population; and the New Zealand Government officials have the good sense to realise that the way to extend the market for farm produce is to advertise its merits and not its defects. If you think that the remarks made upon this page about how the persons responsible for the British pavilion of Agriculture at Glasgow would have arranged the New Zealand lamb display are exaggerated, you are wrong. You have only to visit the British Agricultural pavilion to find out that. The New Zealand Government does far more to help the sale of New Zealand products by not mentioning defects and diseases than the English Ministry of Agriculture does to help the sale of British products by giving diseases and defects an exaggerated and unjustifiable prominence."