§ LORD EUSTACE CECILsaid, he would beg to ask the Vice President of the Council, Whether, with reference to a serious outbreak of Cattle Plague, which occurred in Essex last week, his attention has been drawn to the fact, as stated in a daily paper, that Cattle from Antwerp were landed at Harwich in the morning and inspected at night before they were sent up to the Metropolitan Market; and, if so, whether Orders have been issued that the inspection of all imported Cattle should for the future take place in the daytime?
§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGUsaid, that the outbreak was not so serious as was generally supposed. The only attacks during the present month in Essex were one beast, on the 12th of July, in East Ham Level, and six, on the 21st of July, in Barking Level. It was true that a great number of cattle were slaughtered by the owners on their own responsibility; only seventeen were slaughtered by order of the local authority. As to the cattle coming from Antwerp to Harwich, two calves and some sheep were brought over by the Ravensbourne; they were 80 examined between eight and nine o'clock, and the certificate was granted twelve hours after landing.
§ LORD EUSTACE CECILBy twilight then?
§ MR. READasked, whether the inspection took place after the twelve hours' quarantine; they were landed at half-past nine o'clock.
§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGUsaid, that the intention of the Order in Council was that the cattle should rest twelve hours before inspection, and that intention was acted on in Harwich, until it was learned that in London the practice was somewhat different, and that there the time of inspection was included within the twelve hours. The inspection began at eight o'clock in the evening and terminated at nine o'clock and the certificate was given at half-past nine o'clock; so that the inspection terminated at the expiration of twelve hours after the landing of the cattle.
MR. BRIGHTwished to know whether any other maladies, to which cattle were subject, were reported to the noble Lord's department? He asked this question on the ground that there was a general supposition, as some hon. Members well knew, that many cases were said to be of cattle plague which were not so, that the price of meat in the country was unnecessarily sustained under this delusion, and in this way practically protection was established under the pretence of keeping out cattle which were diseased.
§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGUsaid, that cases of other diseases were reported, but not as cattle plague. They had reports of numerous cases of pleuro pneumonia, for instance. Wherever the inspector made an inspection and gave a certificate of cattle plague, whether it was cattle plague or not, they were bound to treat it as such, in accordance with an Act passed by the late Government in 1866, which made the certificate of the local inspector conclusive as to the occurrence of that cattle disease. The hon. Member for Birmingham was mistaken in his notion concerning a rise in the price of meat; during the worst time of the cattle plague the rise in the price of meat was scarcely perceptible, and during a portion of the time it actually fell in price.
§ MR. LIDDELLasked the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, whether it be true that, under the authority of the Privy Council, liberty has been recently given to the port of Sunder- 81 land to tranship cattle imported thither from abroad, and send them by sea to other ports; whether the cattle transhipment regulations of the port of Sunderland apply to all other ports of import in the United Kingdom; and, if not, why not; and if such cattle transhipment regulations be general throughout the Kingdom; what precautions the Government are prepared to take, by enactment or otherwise, to prevent the spread of cattle diseases imported from abroad?
§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGUreplied, that an Order in Council was passed on 16th July, which permitted the landing of foreign cattle in an island at Sunderland, the only communication between the island and the main land being by means of a bridge, and, of course, no cattle were permitted to pass over it. Under that Order the cattle have to rest for twelve hours on that island, and were then inspected, and might be shipped to other ports, where they must be taken direct to the slaughterhouse. The Order only applied to Sunderland, because various local particulars prevented its application to other towns. Several requisitions had come from other ports, which were under consideration, and would be treated on their own merits. The Government so framed their orders that foreign cattle and home cattle should never meet together, except at the place where they were slaughtered.