PIGS FROM AUSTRALIA

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1931, Page 2

PIGS FROM AUSTRALIA

AN UNFOUNDED RUMOUR. A report recently appeared in a Southern paper of the alleged importation of 3000 pigs from Australia, lhe information was supplied in the first instance by Mr, R. W. Hawke, M.P. foi Kaiapoi, and its publication excited considerable attention in the pork and bacon industry, the suggestion being made that there was a danger of .the Dominion being flooded with these importations. Mr. W. A. Phillips, managing director of. Waione Model Piggeries, Ltd., communicated with tho Government on the matter, with the result that the Minister of Agriculture replied advising that tho Customs Department had been unable to trace any such imP °As a the Wellington firm of J. C. Hutton (N.Z.), Ltd., was mentioned as recipients of the shipment referred to, it communicated with Mr. Hawke on the matter. His reply is to the. effect that the information came to him by telephone from a large pig breeder in Ins electorate, and that ho had accoidingly “passed it on to the paper.” It is evident from the reports ot tile Customs Department, and the evidence of Messrs. J. C. Hutton, that the report was entirely erroneous. Moreover, according to the facts stated by the Wellington firm, there does not appear to be any likelihood of Australian itnportations of pork coming to this countij.