EXPORT OF STUD SHEEP.

Southland Times, Issue 20675, 22 December 1928, Page 15 (Supplement)

EXPORT OF STUD SHEEP.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY ACTIVE. During the past two years New Zealand stud sheep exporters have been subjected to keen criticism by Australian breeders, whose allegations concerning the sheep reaching the Commonwealth from this country were not such as would assist or advance this rapidly-increasing factor in New Zealand’s export trade. Not a«klittle bitterness has arisen as a result of charges of dumping inferior stock on the Australian market. The position has not improved to any appreciable extent Otago and Southland breeders, some of whom have only recently begun exporting on any considerable scale, have found that their operations have been affected, if not altogether hindered, by this state of affairs, and the question has often been asked whether any action was being taken by either Government or the breed societies concerned to protect buyers against being supplied with inferior stock, and at the same time to make it more difficult for . the unscrupulous few to spoil the reputation of the whole body of Dominion exporters. An owner wishing to send sheep away has to notify the Breed Society and the Royal Society. It is sugegsted that no sheep should go from New Zealand unless the export certificate of each breed society has been endorsed by the Royal Agricultural Society, and this society should also issue export certificates for unregistered sheep passed for export certifying that they are up to standard as flock animals. Already a breeder of stud sheep has a great deal to contend with in making arrangements for the sale of his animals.

At recent shows the subject has been by several studmasters. It was suggested that rather than allow the strained relations to continue, the Australian suggestion of an import tax applied in the Commonwealth on an export tax imposed in New Zealand should be put into practice. Such action on the part of the New Zealand and the Federal Governments though not entirely satisfactory, should, it was contended, have some effect as a detertent to the export of the unregistered and scrub stock. Any action would be preferable to allowing the allegations to be made unchecked. In fact, it has been suggested that the proposals framed are certain to arouse hostility. The executive of the society has formulated its plan after consultation with the Director o'? Agriculture (Dr C. J. Reakes). The departmental point of view apparently was that it was evident that the sheep breeders of Australia desired some hall mark to be made upon the sheep exported from New Zealand, and that the issuing of certificates should be controlled by some central organization such as the Royal Agricultural Society. The proposals outlined are certain to make the exporting of sheep much more difficult and complicated than it has been in the past, and the Royal Society also proposes to issue certificates for sheep from unregistered flocks.