HORSE BREEDING BILL. (Hansard, 11 June 1918)

THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (VISCOUNT GOSCHEN)

My Lords, in moving the Second Reading of this Bill I am presenting a measure the provisions of which for some time past have received considerable support, and I am asking your Lordships to make obligatory a system the voluntary application of which has proved both useful and popular. This is a Bill for regulating the use of stallions travelling for service or exhibiting themselves on premises not belonging to the owner with a view to service. This country has won a great reputation for horse breeding, and I am sure you will agree with me that this has been greatly owing to the enterprise and generosity of private owners and the zeal and enthusiasm with which horse breeding societies have endeavoured to obtain improvement and soundness in the horses which they have bred. The refusal of these societies to give prizes or premiums to unsound stallions has not only achieved great practical results, but has paved the way to an acknowledgment of the need for further steps in this direction by way of legislation.

This Bill is net the first suggestion of legislation in this direction. A Committee of your Lordships' House in 1873 reported that compulsory registration of stallions was advisable, but they regretted that there was no machinery by which the administration could be carried out. In 1896, a Committee inquiring into horse breeding also reported in favour of compulsory registration; and in 1912 Lord Saltoun introduced a Bill into this House, but that measure dealt only with light horses, and did not go as far as this measure does. The latest Report that we have is that of the Committee presided over by the noble Lord, Lord Middleton, in 1915, which was appointed to consider what steps should be taken to secure an adequate supply of suitable horses for military purposes. The Committee strongly recommended compulsory registration of stallions.

Since the first inquiry conditions have considerably changed, and the suggestion that there is no machinery by which such administration could be carried out no longer holds good. We have had the experience of collecting and supplying 163 horses during two wars, and this has demonstrated how small a number of horses are really suitable for military purposes Lord Middleton's Committee received several letters which the War Office had written to the Board of Agriculture urging the need of improvement in the system of horse breeding. In one of those letters they say that they are appalled by the number of horses which are unsuitable for hard work; and in 1915 they write that— the experience of the recent mobilisation has shown that though this country produces many super-excellent horses, the number of unsound and utterly worthless horses which ought never to have been bred is deplorably large. So that the question is really one of urgent national and military importance.

The Board of Agriculture consider that the first thing to be done is to eliminate the unsound stallion. The machinery is at hand, because when in 1911 the Development Commissioners gave a grant for the improvement of horse breeding the Board then instituted a system of voluntary registration. Under this system pedigree stallions were registered after veterinary examination, and I think the commercial value of such registration is shown by the number of stallions on those lists. At the present moment the number is 2,020, and I believe that the names of the large majority of pedigree stallions will be found entered on those lists. The object of the present Bill is to make registration compulsory for all stallions which travel for service or are exhibited for service on premises not belonging to their owners. It is introduced in order to protect the owners of mares against unsound stallions, of the condition of which they have, and can have, no knowledge. These stallions are got up to catch the eye; they are travelled up to the very doors of the farmers, and the owners of the mares are tempted to avail themselves of the services of such stallions, not knowing the loss which will accrue both to themselves and to the country.

This measure has received the support of most of the principal breeding societies, of the Royal Agricultural Society and the Farmers' Union, and I think I may say that there is a consensus of opinion in favour of it among all those who are interested in horse breeding. The same steps that I am now asking your Lordships to take have been taken by France, by 164 Germany, by Austria, by many of our Dominions, and by a great many of the Federal States of the United States. Your Lordships will see that under the Bill we do not entirely do away with the unsound stallion. The owner of a mare, if he desires the services of an unsound stallion, knowing that it is unsound but perhaps preferring the strain, may obtain the services of that stallion in its own stables, but such a stallion must not travel about the country or be exhibited in premises which do not belong to its owner.

The gist of the Bill appears in the first clause; the rest of the clauses chiefly carry out the purpose which is contained there. The Bill applies to Scotland and to Ireland, but the Irish Board of Agriculture has a different clause which will be found at the end of the Bill. Clause 2 proceeds to license a stallion for a fee not exceeding one guinea, provided it is not affected in the way mentioned in the paragraphs in subsection (2). In paragraph (b) of subsection (2) it is intended to put into the Regulations the diseases which are specified in the Regulations of the Board under the present voluntary system which have been accepted by most of the breeding societies. Clause 3 deals with the duration, transfer, production, and renewal of the licences; it also provides that for a stallion which has attained a prescribed age—and by that is meant an age which will be prescribed under the Regulations—and for which a licence has been previously granted for a prescribed number of years, the examination for wind only may be waived. This was a clause to which considerable importance was attached in the other House.

Clause 4 provides for an appeal. The appeal is to be to a veterinary officer or other person in the first instance, and from that person to the Board of Agriculture, with whom is to rest the final decision. The Horse Breeding Societies will be consulted as to the names of the veterinary surgeons and other persons to be appointed on the panel of referees. Clauses 5 to 9, inclusive, deal with the administration of the Bill. Clause 10 deals with stallions in the New Forest or on other commons. These commons have their own Regulations and by-laws, but by Clause 10 it is left to them to avail themselves of the provisions of this Bill and to come under them if they should wish to do so. Clause 11 deals with 165 the expenses of the Bill in so far as they are not met, and we do not expect that the charge on the Treasury will be very great. Clause 12 is a defining clause and fixes the appointed day, which shall be not earlier than the first day of January, 1920. Clause 13 applies the Act to Scotland; and Clause 14 is the clause dealing with Ireland, which has received the approval of the Irish Board of Agriculture.

I have endeavoured to prove that the Bill is of urgent necessity, and I hope that this fact, together with my assurance that its provisions have received the support of all those interested in the subject, will commend the measure to your Lordships' approval. I beg to move that the Bill be read a second time.