PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 827, 16 August 1864, Page 5

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

By favor of the Provincial .Government, we are enabled to publish the following report by the Chief Inspector of Sheep.

" Sheep Inspectors Department. ■'Dunedin, Bth August, 1364. " Sir—ln accordance with instructions ofthe 10th u't., I have thy honor to report the result of mv inquiry as to p euro pneumonia having been spread through the Maniotoio and Manuherikia districts, ana whether it would be advisable to throw open thafc part ot the Province. " Leaving Dunedin en the 14th July, I commenced on the 17th to examine cattle, the prtperty of Mr N. B. M'Gregor, afc his station. Mount Stoker, Upper \ Taieri, and found several of them -suffering very much from disease. Being anxious that there should be no doubt on the subject. I was determined to have one killed; but luckily falling in with a heifer that had died the day previous. I opened it at one;, aud found the cause of death to have been pleuro pneumonia. In searching further over the same run, 1 saw about two hundred head rf stray cattle fivm the adjoining station, many of them badly diseased, belonging fco Mr Edward M'Glashan. I was also in o mcd thafc a bullock ot his was in a dying state a short distance abo7e Messrs Purdie and Dick's, on the Tnieri river. Had the animal killed. Found he was in tbe last stage ofthe disease, and could not pospiblv have lived many days. " While riding through the country in the possession of Messrs Thomson. Purdie and Dick, and Phillips and Seal, to see rheir cittle, I found Ji good number dead, but too far decomposed to be able to handle them. Examining their brands, six out of twelve belonged to Mr Edward M'Glashan; also a large number of his cattle with a few of ihem diseased, were mixed amongst the herds belonging to the above named runholders. I continued my inquiry from tbe Taieri lake to the Dunstan, although unable to find out that any cattle had died from pleuro-pnsumonia, I don't think there is a single herd in that part of the Province sale, from the fact of so many cattle (numbers of which are diseased) wandering about the country. To show how they stray, I may mention that a few from the herd of Messrs Driver and Maclean, at the Deep Stream, found their way to Messrs Murison's, Maniototo, and fifteen or sixteen from Mr M'Glashan's diseased lot, have joined Me srs Camphell and Lowe's, afc the Dunstan, a distance of eighty miles. Mr M'Glashan also informs me that he sold some eight weeks since, two hundred out of his herd, to" a settler afc the Wanaka. ■'••''_ ■-." Considering the rambling nature of imported cattle, which in cold weather are continually on the move, and the great difficulty in keeping people from shifting their catrle ft oin one part of the country to another j quite irrespective of all restrictions, it seems abs-urd to shut up in a diseased district, large numbers of sound cattle, that have never been otherwise; while hundreds of infected, are allowed to ramble over the Province without check.

" I woulu strongly recommend tbe Government to throw open the whole country, let pounds_ be estaolished, in central positions in each district, where sfcrag-glers may be impounded, so that their owners might' have an opportunity of getting them, and it would h°!p to prevent disease from spreading so rapidly through the Province. " From the short period at my di-posal, I was unable to devote the time necessary t v make a very close examination, believing if I had done so, I would have been able to report a much greater extent of disease, through the country I passed. " I have the honor to be, "Sir, " Your most obedient servant, " Wm. Los-ie, " Chief Inspector of Sheep. \ " To the Provincial Treasurer of Dunedin."