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1891. NEW ZEALAND.

EXTRACT FROM THE GENERAL REPORT OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON LIVE-STOCK AND RABBITS, 1890, TOGETHER WITH MINUTES OF EVIDENCE AND APPENDIX RELATIVE TO DISEASE AMONGST STOCK.

Evidence ordered to be printed, Session I, 1891.

OEDEB OP BEFERENOK Extract from the Journals of the House of Representatives, Wednesday, the mh January, 1891. Ordered " That the evidence taken before the Joint Live-stock and Babbits Committee of last session, and laid upon the table o£ this House, in so far as it refers to disease amongst stock, be printed."—(Mr. Duthib.)

RXTBACTS FKOM GeNEBAL EePOBT OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON LIVE-STOCK AND BABBITS. {Vide 1.-11, 1890.) Sheep. Your Committeee has had under its notice various matters connected with the Live-stock Department, and is much gratified to learn from the reports of Inspectors that on the 30th June last clean certificates were held by all owners of sheep m the colony, lhe three districts, Torjhouse Kaikoura, and Miranda, which last year were still infected with scab, have, after a very careful inspection, been declared free from this disease, whilst no fresh outbreak has occurred in any Your Committee considers that there is now good reason for believing New Zealand to be absolutely free from scab ; but two years must elapse before it can be deemed to be clean withm the meaning of the regulations in force throughout the Australasian Colonies for the prevention of diseases in diseaseg iv sheep beillg on the increase, your Committee considers it very desirable that Professor Thomas should be requested to complete the investigations commenced by him a few years ago, and also suggests that Mr. J. F. McClean, M.E.C.V.S., should be employed in the same direction. Cattle. With regard to cattle, the attention of your Committee has been drawn to the prevalence in New Zealand, to a considerable extent, of the disease known as tuberculosis, and to a less extent of cancer It is very desirable that the probable danger to human beings arising from these causes should be brought prominently before the public, and very stringent measures taken to prevent the possibility of meat or milk of diseased animals bemg used for food in any way. lhe Cattle Bill referred to above is intended to provide the necessary authority for inspection of cattle, and the destruction of such as are diseased ; but until the establishment of public slaughter-yards, under proper control, there must always be considerable risk of diseased meat finding its-way into thS ThtvSy able report of the Departmental Committee appointed in 1888 to inquire into the nature and extent of pleuropneumonia and tuberculosis in the United Kingdom contains much useful information, and your Committee considers that the Government have acted wisely in causing that portion of the report referring to tuberculosis to be reprinted in the colony for distribution by the Live-stock Department, but does not think it has been sufficiently circulated. When it is generally understood that tuberculosis in animals is virtually the same disease as that known as consumption in man, that it is communicable to human beings by the use of either meat or milk of diseased animals, and that calculations based upon the statistics of the EeSstrars of various countries go to prove consumption to be " the cause of from ten to fourteen per cent, of all deaths among human beings," the serious importance of checking its spread in every possible way cannot but be recognized. t n . P Believing, then, that nothing but a generally-diffused knowledge of the evils here referred to, and their causes, will ever effectually lead to their prevention and cure, your Committee recommends that fuU information regarding tuberculosis and cancer in stock be circulated by the Government as widely as possible. 11th September, 1890.

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