§ MR. SYNANsaid, he would beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council, Whether the Orders of the 20th August and 19th October 1868, regulating the importation of sheep from the Continent of Europe have been revoked; and, if so, whether any and what regulations have been substituted for preventing the importation of diseased sheep or sheep from infected districts? He also wished to know whether the Government proposed to substitute any new regulations for those of the month of August, last, which they had just revoked?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTERsaid, he could not give a different Answer upon that occasion from that which he had given on the preceding evening to his right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle (Mr. Headlam). The Government did not propose to issue any fresh regulations with respect to the importation of sheep in consequence of the revocation of the Order referred to. Importation of sheep will in future be conducted under the same conditions as were in force before the 20th of August last, which were briefly these:—Sheep that arrived in ships in which there was no foreign cattle were allowed unrestricted removal; but for the future the Custom House authorities had been directed to observe especial care in that examination. The latest official information they had received from the Continent in reference to that subject was contained in a despatch dated 3rd of February, to the effect that sheep-pox had abated in the neighbourhood of Rotterdam, and that everywhere else in Holland it had disappeared. Since that time he had seen a letter from the Minister for the Netherlands, which stated that the sheep-pox might be said to have disappeared altogether from that country.