§ Mr. DELANYasked the Vice-President of the Department, of Agriculture (Ireland) what was the total amount of compensation awarded the owners of stock in the Swords district under the slaughtering Orders of the Department; whether the full value of the stock was paid; what portion of the compensation comes out of the local rates; and what is the area upon which it shall be levied?
§ Mr. T. W. RUSSELLThe figures as to the compensation payable in respect of the animals slaughtered, or being slaughtered, in the Swords district are not yet available. It is provided by the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894, that the full value of the animals slaughtered shall be paid. The particulars asked for in the last part of the question cannot at present be supplied.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Vice-president of the Department of Agriculture (Ireland) what reparation is to be made and when to Edward Sheridan and others, joint owners of 111 cows shipped on 28th June from North Wall to Heysham, kept there eleven hours by the Midland Railway 3188W Company, then returned to North Wall, kept there in quarantine for three weeks with insufficient room to stand or lie down and milking neglected, with the result that three of them died and the remainder were by this treatment reduced in value from £16 each to £5 each, and this loss having been caused by State officials needlessly, since the cows have never had foot-and-mouth disease; whether the reparation will include anything for the dislocation of those dealers' business.
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Department has no means of compensating persons who have been subject to loss by detention of cattle owing to foot-and-mouth outbreak. The Disease of Animals Acts provide only for compensation in cases of animals compulsorily slaughtered.
§ Mr. FIELDasked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that six-day notices have been issued by the Land Commission to tenants since the infliction in Ireland of the foot-and-mouth distemper and its accompanying restrictions, which prevent farmers from being able to sell their cattle and meet the demand made upon them; and whether he will consider the advisability of withdrawing those notices to enforce payment of instalments until such times as the Irish cattle trade be again permitted to assume its normal proportions?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Land Commission are bound to enforce payment of Land Purchase Annuities, and the suggestion contained in the question cannot therefore be adopted.
§ Mr. FIELDasked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he will make inquiry into a statement that foot-and-mouth disease is cured commonly in eight or nine days in the district of Styria, in Austria, by a certain treatment which is alleged to be generally successful?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe veterinary officers of the Board are not acquainted with the particular treatment adopted in Styria, but there are several methods of treatment which would often result in the cure of the disease in about the time stated. The condition of the animals would, nevertheless, be very seriously impaired, and it is on this account that curative measures are of comparatively minor importance, and that it is necessary, in the interest of stock owners, that the disease should be stamped out at the earliest possible moment.