§ MR. M'LAGANsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he is aware that in certain districts of the country the local authorities appointed under "The Cattle Diseases Prevention Act, 1866," have failed to carry out that section of the Act by which it is enjoined that "every local authority shall cause all animals affected with the Cattle Plague within its district to be slaughtered;" and, if he is aware of it, whether he is prepared to adopt measures to compel the carrying out of the Act in its entirety?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, in reply, that he had received no specific information to the effect that the local authorities had failed to carry out the provisions of the Act with respect to the slaughtering of cattle, except in the case of one district in Staffordshire, the complaint made in reference to which he had transmitted to the lord-lieutenant of the county, through whom he had received an explanation given by the magistrates against whom the complaint was made which appeared satisfactory. That very day, he might add, a memorial had reached him from the Chamber of Agriculture in Edinburgh, in which it was stated that there were certain counties in Scotland in which it was reported the powers given by the law were only 1122 partially executed. To that memorial he had directed an answer to be written intimating that if any specific case of default in that respect could be pointed out to him inquiries should be made, as had been done in the instance in Staffordshire which he had just mentioned.