AUSTRALIAN EMBARGO ON NEW ZEALAND POTATOES.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXVII, Issue 4, 20 October 1923, Page 279

AUSTRALIAN EMBARGO ON NEW ZEALAND POTATOES.

Further official representations were made recently to the Commonwealth Government with the object of obtaining removal of the prohibition of the importation of potatoes from New Zealand into Australia. Stress was laid on the comparative harmlessness of powdery scab in this Dominion, and willingness to institute a strict inspection of potato shipments at this end was ' reiterated. A reply has been received from the Commonwealth Government stating that the matter had received careful consideration, but that in view of the information available regarding the incidence and spread of powdery scab in other countries it had been decided that the Government would not be justified in incurring the risk of introducing this potato-disease into Australia.

Weraroa' Sale of Pedigree Cattle and Pigs.— The annual stud-stock sale of the Central Development Farm was held on 4th October, with a good attendance of buyers from various parts of the Dominion. In Friesian cattle the herd sire Dominion Woodcrest Piebe Mercedes, which is being superseded by a newly imported animal, was sold at 196 guineas to Dr. S. S. Cameron, of Melbourne. Among the yearling bulls Dominion King Woodcrest went to a Canterbury buyer at 85 guineas, and Dominion Paul Crest was bought for Taranaki at 80 guineas ; the average of all Friesian yearlings was 42 guineas. In Red Polls the herd sire Force Majeure went to a Wairarapa buyer for 80 guineas, and the herd sire Aviator was bought for the Waikato at 50 guineas; the two-year-old bull Dominion Sylvan was sold for Southland at 60 guineas; and the yearling sales averaged 34 guineas. Among the Berkshire pigs, weaner boars made from. 5 to 16 guineas, weaner sows from 5 to 7 guineas, and sows with litters up to 16 guineas.