IMPORTATION OF PEDIGREE ANIMALS BILL. (Hansard, 30 April 1925)

§ LORD BLEDISLOE

My Lords, this is another very simple measure, which I think your Lordships will probably be good enough to accept without any amendment. It is a Bill which authorises the Minister of Agriculture to make Orders for the admission into this country of pedigree livestock from various parts of His Majesty's Dominions. As a matter of history, this idea owes its initiation to the controversy which lasted for some time in relation to the embargo upon Canadian store cattle. As your Lordships are aware, that controversy was finally settled by the passage of the Importation of Animals Act in 1922. There was, in Section 2 of that Act, a provision to the effect that the Minister of Agriculture should be permitted to authorise the admission of cattle other than store cattle from Canada, and at once the question arose as to what sort of cattle might be reasonably admitted, not only from Canada but from various parts of the Empire, especially in view of the fact that, other parts of the Empire were naturally beginning to claim the same privileges as those which were being extended to Canada.

The result was that at the Imperial Economic Conference, in 1923, there was passed the following Resolution:— That steps be taken to promote inter-Imperial trade in pedigree stock throughout the Empire as a whole on reciprocal terms, subject always that precaution be taken against. the introduction of disease. 1116 This Bill simply embodies in legal form the terms of that Resolution. I do not think I need say anything more than that full precautions are taken by quarantine and otherwise against the admission of undesirable or in any way-diseased animals. So far as the right type of animal is concerned, there was incorporated in the Bill, in the House of Commons, a provision that the Minister should only act after consultation with the premier agricultural societies of England and Scotland—namely, the Royal agricultural Society and the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. Bearing in mind these precautions, I think your Lordships will be good enough to approve the Second Reading of this Bill. I desire to move accordingly that this Bill be now read a second time.