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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9124, 4 August 1888, Page 4

The report of the Committee appointed to enquire into the working of t| iP Sheep Department has been laid on the table of the House, and ordered to be printed. The report is an exhaustive one, and is another evidence of the folly and injury of the centralising policy which lias proved so disastrous to the best interests of the colony Believing that no half measures would be of any avail, the Commit recommend that the office of Superintendent; Inspector, with his headquarters in Wellington, be abolished, believing as they do that no permanent improvement will be effected while the Superintendent Inspector is kept in hi- present position. The recommendations of the Committee appear to bo the best possible to meet the difficulty. Tla-v are : The division of the colony into six districts, with an inspector over each, and that he shall be directly responsible to the Minister of tin Department. The weakness of this, like many other systems, arose from the centralising and the lack of discretion in the appointment of subordinates throughout the colony. To remedy this state if things the Committee recommend that no appointments be made in the future without the approval of the inspector of the district, who will he held responsible, and must have the power to appoint or discharge his own subordinates. The Committee also believe, what everyone with any knowledge of the subject always thought, that the officers of the Sheep Department of every grade should p i----; experience in stock, a qualification that has often been ignored. The Auckland district was under the charge of Mr. F.C. Lewis for many years, and the general opinion of the sheep owners was that a more painstaking and conscientious officer could not be found. The slightest indication of disease was taken in hand, and measures adopted for stamping it out, so that for a considerable period the Auckland district was quite clear of scab in sheep. Mr. Lewis had special qualifications for his position, the greater portion of his life had been spent in Auckland, and in consequence he had an intimate knowledge of the country and the people, and he was farming: for some years in the East Tamaki District. For some inscrutable reason the Wellington authorities dispensed with the services oi Inspector Lewis at a time when hi- district was clean. Prior to this they had moved him to Hawke's Bay for a tern!, and lie had been in Auckland again for a time. Two different Inspectors have been acting in the Auckland District since the removal of Mr. Lewis : they were both strangers, and we may charitably presume that they did their best, but a fitting comment is made on the weakness of the system by the remark of the Chairman of Committee, Mr. Lance, who, in moving the adoption of the report, said that the Inspector now in Auckland could not be blamed for the outbreak of scab, because he had only been recently removed there. If the Minister of Lands is wise, and really wishes to free the district from disease, he will appoint one to the post who is not only thoroughly conversant with the many forms of this sheep disease, but who has a knowledge of the district and people among whom he will have to exercise his inspectorial duties.