LIVE STOCK EMBARGO

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 135, 9 June 1937, Page 10

LIVE STOCK EMBARGO

VIEWS FOR AND AGAINST ' I SHEEP FARMERS’ OPINIONS ; Conflicting opinions were freely i discussed at the sheep farmers I —athering which has been in session : -4. Massey coliege, when, at the eon- , eluding session. Mr. it. o. Stuchey, of Dannevirke, gave a brief address , on the pros ano cons of lining the ; embargo at present operating against • the iniportaiion 01 live stoea iron: | England. Mr. Stuckey openly ex-! pressed the opinion mat mere was | much more to be said tor me kiting. of the embargo than tor its reien-.ioa j but directly opposite opinions v.tiealso readily formcoming. No motion was placed before the meeting. Prolessor G. S. Pcrcn, principal of the college, saying that n was the wish of the College council that me college should m no way be associated with an expression of oi.iiaon on such a matter, as it was one oc policy. The subject was a very serious one, said Mr. Stuckey, who added mat ii , was diliieult to nnd anything against lifting me win. An me a,g‘.i..<en>» | against it were centred to. nd the| cm rymg of injection. n we had lav disease nere it m.g it be .'etrimentai | to a certain extent. me saauuUc-| lion ot fresii btoou >. .c warned r,_. | some—otners said it w not necessary. it was also ml f® we bad free and clean slock whien were o. a first-class standard ano there ua. no reason to try to secure better stock. Hie points against lifting the ban were tew. but very vital to some people. Tne regulations in r-ngiand were so drastic that mere was no possible chance ot Having miection brougni here in tne m e a-.imai. me British Government would not lie any doubtiul stock come oui. previous to the embargo, stock nad come to New Zealand quite regularly, an t there had not been even a quarantine , station. Him. :.i the disease had been in extsie Even if the disease I came imo quarantine station it ■ could not trace because the animals] would be slaughtered, t here was not ; the least doubt that we had to im-1 port new—and the best—blood to, hold our beel and mutton standards and imnrove them. W e had to mee. competition of a very strong cnaracter. It was no good lor us just to remain where we were; we nad to increase our standards at a laster rate than our competitors were doing. Tnose breeders who were importing very high priced stock were commanding a tremendous market. Instances were a sale in Masterton and two in Wellington recently. The breeders wanted new blood in order to progress with their flocks. further, it had never been proved that there was a carrier only of the disease, and surely that showed that we were safe here. Australia was quite prepared to take the risk of our imported stock remaining there for a period. The welfare of New Zealand depended on the fact that our produce, whatever it was, had to be of the very highest quality. It was absolutely essential that our produce be kept at the very highest standard. There were only a few breeders now who were importing, because they could afford to do so. but if the embargo were lifted the importations

would be very much greater. Those men who were importing deserved all the prise we could give tnem, because, besides advancing their own ends, they were assisting the whole country’. | England was just as anxious as we , were that we should import stud I stock. Mr. Stuckey added. We sent practically the whole of our meat to England, yet gave her nothing in return in the way of buying stock, at a time when the risk was so very small that there was really no risk at all. We should, by importing stock, help to provide a balance lor the goods we were sending Home. Arguments Against Mr. H. B. Tennent (Auckland) said ii would be disastrous if we had the disease here. The germ had not yet been even isolated, and its lite history was not yet known, despite the fact that thousands of pounds had been spent on investigations. So it could not be said, by any means,, that "‘there were no carriers.” Our stock now was vastly superior to the stock that the great breeders of England had commenced operations with. We were expecting, when importing, that sheep which were suited to England would do exactly the same here —on the other side of the world and j.,n very different soil, jersey island had not imported stock, yet led the world in butter producing Jersey I cattle and had not had the foot and | mouth disease. The Australian I Merino sheep had not gone back be- ! cause of the lack of importations. ■ The Merinos there were the finest in the world and had been developed to suit their environment. It was quite illogical to suppose that stock would remain the same under a different, environment. Our types were now becoming suited to that environment, and to import stock was to throw’ back that development for severa. generations. At recent Royal shows it had been shown that the winners, in many cases, were those who did not otten import. We had improved on originals, and in the period of the embargo cattle exports had increased I by 800 per cent., those for horses by ' 100 per cent., and those for sheep by 400 per cent. Did that show that our I stock was going back? Great Bnti ain herself even had an embargo I against all importations of stock from countries having foot and mouth disease. In recent years the breeders there had not imported stud animals. | If we had the disease here we would i lose much of our export market in meat ;-ul stock. Even though we ■did not buy stock from Great Briti ain per head we bought more oi her (other goods than any other country. All imports of live stock from couni tries having the disease should be abj barred and the export of our | stock should be encouraged in every pay. Opinion Changed i Mr. J. E. Hewitt (Mangamaire) • said he had opposed the lifting of line embargo, but he had now been ; converted to the other view. Vetei- ‘ inary and medical men had assured ■ him that any animal, to be a carrier, must have contracted the disease itself first. So stringent were the rei gulations that no animal, having been 1 affected, could ever leave England. 1 While he was in favour of lifting the , embargo, he advocated that theie • should be an absolute Insistence on | tightening up of the regulations in New Zealand.

Mr. J. C. Field (Gisborne) said that the scientists knew nothing of the life cycle of the foot and mouth disease germ. A German scientist had found that the virus would live for i seven months. In Switzerland, keeping the cattle out of the market for as long as a year had not proved effective. The disease had lived longer than that. In France it had cost Iho farmers £5,000,000 a year. Britain was spending £250,000 a year for compensation for stock killed owing to th? disease, and California had spent £1.250,000 to eradicate the disease. Could New Zealand stand that cost? We could not afford to run the risk. We had a clean country and its value lay in keeping it so. To have foot and mouth disease here would end

all scope for the New Zealand breeders who were exporting animals. Mr. Gordon (Taihape) pointed out that stock were coming into New Zealajnd all the time from Great Britain in an unsatisfactory and roundabout way. Mr. Lloyd Hammond had advanced a scheme which would improve that. Such a scheme was on the right lines. On the Continent there were no steps taken to check the disease, said Mr. Stuckey. He would be in favour of importing only stock from England. all of it to come through the quarantine station. Il was a fact thai there had been no case of foot and mouth disease exported to Australia or New Zealand“There have been very grave suspicions.” said Mr. Tennent. Dealing with submissions by Mr. Tennent, Mr. Stuckey admitted that we had evolved a type of Romney sheep which suited our conditions. He did not think we could improve that. We had also evolved the Corriedale. To say that the Southdown was in the same category was impossible. We had to look to the English market for improvement in that direction. At the moment we could not produce sufficient high quality Southdown sheep to meet the demand. We had to take what risk there was. if there was one. to meet the competition of our rival exporters. We had to hold our own or else “go under.” The same arguments applied to cattle. We had not sufficient really outstanding sires, although we had plenty of good ones. Another speaker said there was very little risk of infection through animals, but there was risk in importing bulbs (with earth), and fodder. The Devon breed of cattle was one which might be of great value to New Zealand, yet we could not import it from England. In closing the meeting, Professor Peren asked, as already indicated, that no motion be placed before it as the subject was a policy matter and the Massey College Council wished that the college keep absolutely aloof from all expressions of opinion of that kind.