§ SIR J. LENG (Dundee)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether there are any restrictions against Irish cattle being sent into Scotland; whether, so recently as the 15th instant, the Irish Government refused to sanction the importation of pedigree Aberdeen, Angus, and Shorthorn breeding stock from Macdonald, Eraser, and Company's Perth auction 840 market; and whether, Scotland being entirely free from cattle disease, it is intended to continue a prohibition against Scotch cattle being imported into Ireland which does not apply to Irish cattle shipped to Scotland?
THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. J. MORLEY, Newcastle-upon-Tyne)The Irish Veterinary Department report that there are no restrictions against the importation of Irish cattle into Scotland, and that on the 15th instant the Irish Government refused to sanction the importation of cattle from two sales to be held at Perth Auction Mart on the 21st and 28th instant. For several years, in consequence of the prevalence of pleuro-pneumonia in Great Britain, the importation of cattle into Ireland has been prohibited except with the permission of the Lord Lieutenant. Such permissions have, however, frequently been given for the importation of cattle specially required for breeding purposes in cases where the cattle are purchased on the places where they were bred, and when the Veterinary Department is enabled to make full inquiry into the health, previous history, and surroundings of the herd from which it is proposed to bring the cattle; but it has been the practice to withhold permission to import from sales such as those mentioned at which cattle belonging to numerous persons and brought from widely separated localities are exhibited. (At one of the above sales cattle from three counties in England are to be exposed.) Pleuro-pneumonia has at great expense and labour been eradicated from Ireland, no outbreak having occurred there since September, 1892. The disease has, however, appeared in different places in England and Scotland during the year 1893, and the Irish Veterinary Department has been advised that the time has not yet come when it would be absolutely safe to remove the existing restrictions.