VISCOUNT HAMILTONasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the Government have received any authentic additional information on the subject of the late attempt stated to have been made to land sheep surreptitiously on the north coast of Ireland by boats from a ship bound from a Scotch to an English port?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYA report reached the Irish Government that an attempt had been made to land sheep on the north coast of Ireland, but no specific information of time or place was given. It is supposed that some sheep were landed upon an unfrequented part of the coast from a ship bound from Scotland to England. Instructions, however, have been given to 1096 prevent any such violation of the Orders in Council.
§ MR. DYCE NICOLasked the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, whether any steps had been taken to obtain, through the local authorities in districts infected with the cattle disease, accurate weekly information as to the number of cattle "attacked, killed, died, and recovered;" and also as to the success of preventive and curative treatment in those districts, and whether there was any change in the character of the disease since its first appearance? He wished also to ask, whether the Government had received any information as to a new mode of cure introduced by Mr. Alexander and followed up by Mr. Low, under which the percentage of recoveries had been 90 per cent?
MR. H. A. BRUCEsaid, that a Veterinary Department had been created in the month of August to deal with the emergency of the cattle plague, and it had since been in constant communication with 800 inspectors, who had sent in reports of various degrees of accuracy. The Secretary of the Department had been directed to prepare a special report for the information of the Royal Commissioners, and he believed it was nearly ready. It would contain a Return from August to the 31st of December last of the animals which had been attacked, which had died or been killed, which had recovered, and the cases which still remained. The Returns of the Secretary would also be verified up to the 31st December. It would also contain maps illustrating the monthly progress of the disease in every petty sessional division, and tabulated reports on the various methods of treatment pursued between August and December. No positive evidence had been received that the disease had changed its character; but there had been a gradual increase in the percentage of cures, from 5 to about 13½ per cent in the last week. He had received no specific information as to the treatment of cattle in Kineardineshire, but he would undertake that the weekly Returns should be as full as was consistent with the due discharge of the duties of a Department which had to deal with such an enormous mass of cases.