The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-04-12 00:00:00

THE TAX ON MEAT.

The following letter has been published In The Tines:—

There is one tax falling upon us more severely than
any which the Chancellor of the Exchequer can in-
clude in his Budget, yet, I believe, a perfectly needless
and preventable burden on the industry of the nation.
—I mean the waste of human food wrought by the on.
controlled ravages of the foot and mouth disease. I
feel sure the public have no adequate idea of the
extent to which the scourge has injured the meat supply
and impoverished the tenant farmers of Great Britain;
and I oak your permission to offer an estimate of
the total loss inflicted in one year. The Hereford-
shire Chamber of Agriculture has collected returns
of the number of attacks and of deaths in the county
during 1872, an. has arrived at an eetimated direct
money loam of £87,497 uoen cattle, £48,031 upon sheep,
and £4,019 uoon pigs. ;Now, there ie no reason for sup-
posing that Herefordshire has been harder hit than the
rest of Great Britain. On the contrary, the official
reports of the inspectors in 1871 showed that while the
number of came of foot and.mouth disease in that
county was 9 per cent, of the total head of cattle, the
number of cases in Great Britain amounted to 94 per
cent, of the total head of cattle, and we may there-
fore assume that the ravages of the disease in
Herefordshire did not exceed the rate for the
whole of the kingdom. By a simple rule-of-three
sum, then, as the 69,000 cattle of Herefordshire
are to 5,625,000 catde in Great Britain, so is
1:87,497 to £7,132,907, the loss upon cattle in Great
Britain. In the same way, as the 314,000 sheep of
Herefordehire are to 27,920,000 sheep in Great Britain,
so is £48,631 to £4,270,781. the total ham upon sheep.
And again, in the same way, as the 33,500 pigs of Here-
fordelure are to 2,772,000 pigs in Great Britain, so is
.64,019 to £332,527, the total loeses upon pigs. Thus,
at the rate of deetruction in Herefordshire the waste ef
meat and milk last year by one contagious disease,
which defies our ineffectual law, amounted to
£11,736,215.
I believe that the returns from the Herefordshire far-
mers are still very incomplete ; the Comix.ittee who, with
the aid of Mr. Rankin and Mr. T. Duckham, have been
conducting the inquiry, report that many etockowners
who are known to have suffered severely have not yet
sent in replies; and, judging from the number of
" forms " sent out, these returns probably do not re-
preernt more than two-thirds of the flocks and
herds in the county. It is, therefore, quite possible
that the direct money loss to the etockownere of
Great Britain and deprivation to the meat consumers
amounted to a very much larger sum than 11 millions
sterling from one disease in one year, and that a disease
now running riot for another season, yet no doubt per-
fectly controllable and preventable. Of course the
indirect and consequential injuries would pile up the
whole sacrifice to • Mill more monstrous figure. I will
add, for comparison, that according to the Board of
Trade tables, the value of all the live animals im-
ported from foreign countries in 1871 was only about fi ve-
and-a half millions sterling —I have the honour to be,
JOHN ALGERNON CLARK&
Central Chamber of Agriculture,
The SalLbury natal, Fleet-etreet, April 5.