The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-04-02 00:00:00

71.1TiF GoVERNMENT CATTLE BILL.

_ ..... _
The Daily News, in an article, remarks that the
DUIDOeOII.I and influential deputation introduced by
Mr. Foster to the Duke of Ricamond and Gordon on
Monday is &significant indicataion of the feeling excited
by the Cattle Diseases Bill f the Government. The
clause which requires that all foreign cattle shall be
al m.chtered at the port where they land ii no, MI
essential part of the measure. It was not recommended
by the 4elect Committee of last year. on whose import
the Government measure is bate d. Pointing out whet
the C nomittee actually advised, the .Veres says this
would, of course, leave the foreign trade in cattle
comparatively free, though liable to sudden suppres
lion at any moment when any disease appeared in the
countries from which the animals are sent. A far
more simple scheme would be to treat foreign countries
jttst as districts of our own country are to be treated
under the Bill, by leaving the trial, free when they
are free from disease; but causing all animals to be
slaughtered at the port by lan ling when they come
from any country which is declared to be infected.
The committee, however, took neither of these two
courses. Everybody admits that free trade in
disease should be stopped, but this end can surely
be attained by some less rough and ready
method than that of stopping free trade in cattle.
Even if we grant that all &mese comes from abroad.
as the farmers, with most patriotic vaußy. flitter
themselve• it does, it would be sufficient to kill at the
=all animals that come frcm any counts v where
exists. There is no reason in the worfd why a
meg., of splendid animals from Portugal should be
killed at soon as tioey land at Southampton because
disease may exist in Germany, and is likely to infect
cargoes sent to [tun or Loudon. There it no trace of
cattle plague in Canals or America, and as Mr.
Mundell* pointed out, our trade with thew countries
for live cattle is growing very rapidly, and, he thinks,
1.. likely to supersede that in dead meat. Why should
these restrictions be applied to this trade from across ,
the ktlentic out of dread of diseases which only exist
In Europe? This question was not answered by the
Duke id Richmond on Monday, probsbly because it is
not capable it satisfactory re ily The Duke told the
deputation that there had been airs idy a yetr of this
prohibition ; but he did not p ,in, out its effect. We
called attention some time ago to some figures
supplied in a letter 1,7 Mr. John Irwin which throw
very strong light on this point. From the countries
to which compulsory slaughter is now we
bayonet' lost year 204 105 cattle again.t 271 5761 n the
veer before, when no WM .111111Ory slaughter existed,
the sheep fell from 1 044,252 to 874,082. and the
swine fr m 43.796 to 20037. This a practical answer
to lie plea that the c •mpulsory slaughter will not
affect importation ; and it is only what all the laws
and conditions lif trade would lead us to expect. The
supporters of the Governusent Bill fail to perceive
that minpulsor7 slaughter is the same thing as c on-
pulsory sale. rho linke of Richmond relies for the
inl ind markets on the deal meat trade, the success of
which seems to have greatly impressed his ioiaigina-
hi But even g &nun; all that can be said as to the
facilities for transporting meat from the seep its to the
inland towns, the I ffi,lll yin nut met. I tor argument
is that the meat will not be there to be trantported,
because shippers will not run the risk of formed sales.
Anm her of the reasons by which the Bill is supported
it that the foreign i, eat eupply is, after all, I oily one-
ninth ..f the total provision. and that wears imperill-
ing rig tminthe for that one-ninth. We folly grant ,
that the home cattle must be shielded from imported
divert, and our contentian is that the means propo-al
are not necessary for the push tee. It ha. to be
remembered, moreover, that though foreign cattle
form but oneminth of our whale national coneump•
they constit me far more than a ninth of the soles in
our great towns. The rural distriott pob tidy have
fi•ee more thou h imagrowo aeimala ; but the Mayor
of Newcastle showed bat more thso one-tiled of the
whole number of ca tie sold in that market Net year
were of foreign oirgion. It is likely that a somewhat
similar propmtiou would tie fount rxist elsewhere.
Mr. Ituilkin said, in his evidence before Let rear's
Select Committee, that ever since 1865 there had been ,
a falling olf in the English cattle aid sheep in the
Islington Market, and a corresponding increase in the
supply of foreign cat le. These facts indicate the
great importance of the foreign animals to the food
supply 4,1 the large towns; and, in spite of the Duke
of Richmond's sanguine assurances, we believe with the
deputation and the large bodies it represented that the
Bill, if it passes in its present form, will seriously
raise the price of meat in all the great inland towns.