PLEURO-PNEUMONIA AND THE SQUATTERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 670, 10 February 1864, Page 5

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA AND THE SQUATTERS.

(2o the Editor of the Daily Times.) Sib—l did not intend again to enter into a newspaper correspondence upon the merits of importation or nonimportation, having, as I considered, called the attention of my fellow-citizen' to the fact that they were likely to be burdened with an impost for the sole benefit of the holders; and feeders of stock in this colony, and which impost I did not look upon as s just or judicious [.one; but the covertly sneering tone adopted by i this Wm. Archd. Murray (who is he?) whoreplies to my letter, induces me again to state that the interests of the many in any one particular article have no right to be sacrificed for the benefit of the few j that the system of protection is an unwise one; and that the only plan of safely and rapid Jy developing the resources of the country is by adopting the principles of free trade in their fullest extent. These, my former statements, Mr Murray does not in the slightest degree attempt to controvert, but he turns round and individualises me with the question, " How would I like so to be placed had I eight or ten years' ago come to Otago with my savings'^' This system of reasoning is not, in my opinion, argument, it savours too much of the schoolboy who answers one question by asking another. I may, however, state, in answer to my last, that since writing that I have learnt that 12 months' ago a bullock having every appearance of pleuro was killed in a slaughter yard not far from Dunedin; that a note was made at the time of the date, &c.; and also that some months ago another was killed across the bay, also very much diseased.

Competent judges are also very certain that during the last 12 months large numbers of store cattle must have been imported, more or less tainted with the malaria.

The contagion, then, has not been so very devastating as the great outcry would make us believe, and I again distinctly assert that the magnitude of the evH is overrated; its virus is not now so fatal or great as it formerly was, and the experience we have in its treatment by means of vaccination, reas ures us of being able in a great degree, to stem the fatality of its progress. Still, while I deplore the evil I cannot see why the general public should be shut off from the necessary supplies of animal food which they in this country demand. Stop if you wish again I say, the importation of stores, but let us have fat in abundance, so that the present hard times may not be aggravated by having to pay double for "the pound of beefsteak. Mr Murray does not seem to imagine that should Dunedin and the other sea-board town* be rendered dependent upon Otago alone for butchers' supply, that such, an event would tell very materially upon the prices among diggers, <Sc; such a drain being made would perhaps aggravate their hardships more than by driving all"non-provincial from the market. I have however in this matter extended my paper much too long, and will close by adding this only observation, that when a great general policy, whether for good or evil, is at issue, no man can dispassionately juds;e when his interests are pecuniarily concerned, and in such a situation, I may infer from the fone ot his lettter, my honorable opponent, Mr William Archibald Murray, is placed. Apologising for trespassing so much upon your valuable columns, I am, &c, Scotch Farmer. Dunedin, 9th February, 1864.