§ MR. LAWRENCE (Liverpool, Abercromby)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he can state what number of cattle lost in the Atlantic transit is due to losses in the North and the South Atlantic passages, respectively; whether, in late months, out of 227,515 head carried by the North Atlantic trade, only 261 were lost; and whether any Returns issued by his Department set out the losses sustained on the various routes of transit, respectively; and, if not, whether this information can be supplied in future Returns?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. W. H. LONG,) Liverpool, West DerbyDuring the year 1898, 1,012 cattle were lost in transit from the United States and Canada out of a total shipment of 478,895, or 0.21 per cent., as compared with 5,271 out of a total shipment from Argentina of 94,640, or 5.57 per cent. I am not sure as to the period to which the figures cited by my honourable Friend relate, but the losses of cattle shipped from the United States and Canada during the first three months of the current year were 750, out of a total shipment of 78,594. A full statement and explanation of the losses sustained both in the North and South Atlantic trades is always given in the Annual Report of our Proceedings under the Diseases of Animals Acts.