PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 664, 20 August 1864, Page 20

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

By ftvor of the Provincial Government, we are enabled to publish the following leporfc by the Chief Inspector of Sheep. " Sheep Inspector's Department. "Dunedin, Bth August, 1314. " Sir— ln accordance with instructions of the 10th u't., I aave th ■ honor to report th > result of my inquiry as to p euro- pneumonia having been spread through the Mauiotolo ami Maiuherikia districts, an'l whether it would be advivible to throw open that part ot the Province. i-r- 1

" Leaving Dunedin on the 14rh July, I com-» menced on the 17th to examine cattle, the property of Jlr IV. B. M'Grregor, at his station, Mnunt Stoker, Upper |Taieri, and found several nf them suffering very much from disease. Being anxious that there shou'dbe no doubt on the subject, I was determined to have on. 1 killed; hut luckily falling in with a heifer that had died the day previous I opened it at one, and found the cau<e of death to have been \ leuro pneumonia In searching further over the sams run, J saw about two .hundred head rf stray cattle fivm the adjoining station, many of them badly diseased, bslonging to Mr Edward MTllashan. I was also in o mcd that & bullock ot his wa3 in a dying state a short distance abo/c Messrs Pdrdie and I'ick'a, on the T«icu river. Had the nninnl killed. Found he was in the last stage of the disease, and could not posrib'y have lived many days.

" While riding through ths country in the possession of Messrs Thomson. Purdie and Dick, and Phillips and Seal, to ses their cittle, I fount) a pood number dead, but too far decomposed to be able to handle them. Examining their brands, sis out of twelve belonged to Mr Edw/ird M'G'a«han ; also a large number of his cattle with a few of them diseased, were mixed amongst the herds belonging to the above named runholders. I continued my inquiry from the Taierilake to the Duns'an, although unable to find out thav any cattle had died from pleuro-pneumonia, I don' t think there is a single herd in that part of the Province sale, from the fact of so many j cattle (numbers of which are diseased) wandering abou f the country. To shov. 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 grs Camp' ell and Lowe's, at the Dunstan, a distance of eighty miles. Mr M'Glashan also informs me that he sold some eipht. weeks since, two hundred out of his herd, to a settler at 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 cattle fiorn one part of the country to another, quite irrespective of all restrictions, ifc seems absurd 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 would strongly recommend the Government to throw open the whole country, let pounds be established, *in central positions in eaoh district, where stragglers may be impounded, so that their owners might have an opportunity oi getting them, and it would help to prevent

disuse from spreading bo rapidly through the Province.

" From the short period at my disposal, I was unable to devote the time necessary twiakea very close examination, believing if I tail done so I would have been ab e to report a much are iter extent of dis'ase, through the country I passe .'.

" I have the I'onor to be, Sir, '• Your most obedient servant, " W'm. Looib. il Chief Jnc-pector of Sheep. *' Tij the Provincial Treasurer of Dunedin. 3*3 *