VETERINARY SURGEONS AND STOCK INSPECTORS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2761, 13 February 1907, Page 11

VETERINARY SURGEONS AND STOCK INSPECTORS.

THE ALTERED ARRANGEMENTS. (Fsou On Oinr Cobbxsfonsekt.) : WELLINGTON, February 4. The question of the relative positions of tfee^ stock and veterinary divisions of the Agricultural Department has been recently the subject of some comment, and apparently the veterinarians are not altogether satisfied with the position. To some extent their administrative functions appear to have been curtailed, but not to the extent that has been stated by the Gisborne Times. The New Zealand Government veterinary service is not a separate department of the rjublic service .of the colony, • but a division ~of the Department of "Agriculture, and, like other divisions of that department, is under the ' general -^superintendence of the Secretary for Agriculture, who, acting under the Minister of - Agriculture, has control of the whole of the department. The staff of the veterinary, division- consists of a pathologist and chief veterinarian, having under him an assistant chief veterinarian, field veterinarians, meat inspectors, arid assistant- meat inspectors. The two main ""functions of the division are the; investigation of live stock* diseases in general and "the inspection of* meat. The field veterinarians are engaged in the work of investigating 'diseases in Jive stock, but it .has to be clearly understood that their .r services are- not usually available for ordinary surgical cases or for individual instances of non-contagious disease. They do, of "course, give advice and assistance ■when requested and when time permits, but their time is mostly occupied in dealing^ with outbreaks of contagious or other diseases that affect, or are likely to affect, considerable numbers of etock. At the divisional headquarters at Wallaeeville (20 miles from Wellington) there is a wellequipped pathological laboratory with a farm attached, where special animals may be sent by the department's officers for treatment, and where microscop'cal and bacteriological examinations of specimens are constantly being carried out for the benefit of the stock-owning community of the colony generally. With respect to the inspection' of meat, it must be understood that there are three classes of slaughterhouses — viz., meat export works, public abattoirs, and ordinary elaughetr-houses. The veterinary division is concerned in the inspection of meat at the two former only, and in those cases every carcase is under the surveillance of the officers of the veterinary division. The- ordinary slaughterhouses are. however, subject to genera! inspection by officers acting . under the direction of the chief inspector of stock. . It is, I believe, claimed by the vete. that all matters connected with diseases of stock in -the colony 6hould come directly* under the control of that division, and no doubt there is a gcod deal to be said in favour of that. Under the present regulations a vet. may see a disease il animal and have^ no power to condemn or to destroy it unless authorised by a Etock inspector to do so; yet the vet. is the man who knows. Similarly, it may be argued that the matter of dairy inspection should be in the hands of tho Veterinary Department, and not in the hands of tho Stock Department. Indeed, to-day's cablegram from London 'about the finding of the Tuberculosis Commission emphatically confirms that opinion ; and Dr Mason, the head of the Health Department, discussing the result. of the commission's experiments affirms the ' need for stringent Inspection. The necessity of veterinarians dealing with dairy inspection is the more aoparent, especially as in New Zealand in the past, a number of incompetent persons were, for political reasons, given billets aa stock inspectors. _ Almost anyone in the department will now admit to you that euch was the "case, but a new order of things , now prevails in the department, and responsible; officers have, no- hesitation in declaring that Mr M'Nab is apparently desirous of appointing in all cases the best qualified men.' Whether or not he can go a etep farther -and weed out the incompetents with which the department has in the past been saddled rmains to be seen. On fhe whole, so far as I can gather from various sources, the putting of the stock division under thecontrol of Mr Clifton is a popular and a desirable move, and probably in due course the Minister may soe his way to make some further improvements in 'ho department by a tetter definition of the powers and duties of the officers of the two divisions referred to. Some slight changes in '"the direction indicated would no doubt tend to prevent friction between the veterinary and the stock divisions and at the same time add' to the efficiency of the department as a whole.