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PART I.-IMPERIAL REPORT.
B.—REVENUE SECTION.
V(a).—EQUINE DISEASES.
Glanders and Farcy.
411. A most important amendment has been proposed in the Glanders
and Farcy Act during the past year. It arose out of a case which occurred
in Bombay and which I referred to that Government for decision. It
rested to be settled whether Inspectors under the Act had power to enter
licensed or public stables for the purpose of ascertaining whether the disease
existed or not. On the question being referred to the Advocate General, he
expressed his opinion in the following terms:—
"I think Government have no power under the existing law to make a rule which will enable the Inspectors
under the Glanders and Farcy Act, 1879, to enter any portion of a licensed or public stable, and to inspect
the horses there at any time he may deem necessary. Section 14 (a) enables Government to make rules, consist-
ent with the Act, for regulating entries and searches by Inspectors under the Act; by section 5 an Inspector
may seize any horse which he has reason to believe from personal knowledge or from information given, and
taken down in writing, is diseased, and by section 6, for the purpose of making the seizure referred to in
section 5, he may enter and search any building where he has reason to believe from personal knowledge,
or from information taken down in writing, that a diseased horse is in the building which he desires to
search. The Act gives the Inspector no general power of inspection of stables, and by section 12 he is liable
to be punished if he enters or searches any building without reasonable ground of suspicion. Government
cannot, by a rule, give the Inspector larger powers than the Act gives them.
" It would seem to be desirable that Inspectors should have more ext ded powers, but I think the
only way they can be granted would be by an amendment of the Act."
412. It will therefore be seen that the powers of the Inspectors were so
limited as to make the Act null and void, for no owner of a commission
stable is likely to give the information, interfering as it would naturally do
with his business; he would rather incur the risk of incurring any penalty to
which he would be liable under the Act.
413. The matter has been referred to the Legislative Department in order
that sections 5 and 6 of the present Act should be amended so as to give
Inspectors general powers of entry and inspection of stables and other places
in course of their duty, as well as power to seize any diseased horse in the
course of such inspections.
Reports to be sub-
mitted by Civil
Officers to Military
Authorities and
vice versâ on the
appearance of
contagious disease.
414. The orders of the Government of India, contained in their Circular
No. 4—29, dated 6th February 1895, to all Local Governments, in which it is
laid down that Civil Authorities should acquaint the Military Authorities
and vice versâ of the existence of contagious disease, do not appear to be as
widely known as they should be. I consider this a most important matter as,
for example, if glanders is known to exist at a certain stage on a dâk line
leading to a hill station, if notice is given to the Military Authorities of its
existence, officers marching their horses or ponies along that road can warn
their syces not to halt in the vicinity of the infected area. I have frequently
to call the attention of the Superintendents, Civil Veterinary Department,
to the order asking them to request the District Officers to issue the necessary
notification, and during the year under review, the Principal Veterinary
Officer in India brought to light the fact that a pony suffering from glanders
had been destroyed at Mohund on the Saharunpur-Rajpur line, and that
no report of the matter had been made to the Military Authorities, although
the Superintendent, Civil Veterinary Department, had reported its
occurrence to the Collector of Saharunpur and the Superintendent, Dehra
Dun. I cannot impress too strongly on all Civil Officers the necessity of
complying with the orders on this subject, as by so doing they may be the
means of preventing outbreaks of fatal diseases in the mounted branches of
the service.
Extension of the
Glanders and Faroy
Act to the North-
-estern Provinces
415. I fear I was in a measure premature in stating last year that this
Act had been applied to the North-Western Provinces, but it has now come
into force; as, by Notification dated 13th September 1898, the Hon'ble the
Lieutenant-Governor and Chief Commissioner was pleased to apply the Act,
with effect from 1st January 1899, to the whole of the territories for the
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