94

THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 5th February, 1872.

HIS Excellency the Governor has been pleased to
accept the resignation by

SINGLETON ROCHFORT, Esq.,
of his appointment as Examiner of Titles for the
Hawke's Bay Land Registration District.

W. GISBORNE.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 6th February, 1872.

HIS Excellency the Governor has been pleased to
appoint

EDWIN BAMFORD, Esq.,
to be Examiner of Titles for the Hawke's Bay
Land Registration District, vice S. Rochfort, Esq.,
resigned.

W. GISBORNE.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 6th February, 1872.

IT is hereby notified, that, in conformity with
Clause 133 of "The Municipal Corporations
Act, 1867," the name of the under-mentioned person
has been sent in to this office by the Town Clerk as
having been elected Mayor for the Borough of
Riverton:-

LACHLAN MCGILLIVRAY, Esq., M.H.R.

W. GISBORNE.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 8th February, 1872.

THE following Report by the Inspector of Sheep
in Tasmania, on the working of "The Scab Act,
1870," is published for general information.

W. GISBORNE.

Inspector of Sheep Office,
Hobart Town, 1st November, 1871.

SIR,-I have the honor to submit for your consider-
ation my Report upon the working of "The Scab
Act, 1870," from the time it came into operation up
to the present date.

"The Scab Act, 1870," was passed during the
Session of 1869, and it was intended by its framer
that it should come into operation on the 1st of
January, 1870; but unfortunately, through some
misconception of the probable results which might
arise if a later date was fixed upon, an amendment
was carried which postponed the date when the Act
should become law until the 1st of March, 1870.

As the general shearing season terminates early in
January, the postponement of the Act taking effect
until the 1st of March acted generally as a postpone-
ment of the operation of the compulsory dipping
provisions for twelve months, or until after the
termination of the shearing season in 1870-71. But
although this was the general result of the change in
the date of the Act becoming law from the 1st Janu-
ary, 1870, to the 1st of March of the same year, there
were many sheepowners who acted upon the impres-
sion that dipping was compulsory immediately after
the shearing of 1869-70; and in many cases with
such satisfactory results, that some gentlemen who
had very strongly and earnestly opposed the intro-
duction of the Scab Act, in the firm belief that it
would be so detrimental to the interests of sheep-
owners, that possibly, nay probably, it would
involve the ruin of themselves and that of hundreds
of others of the same class, on finding how beneficial
their compliance with the dipping provisions of the
Scab Act had proved, wrote and otherwise informed
me of the fact, and ever since that time have heartily
lent me the weight of their influence upon public

opinion, and the benefit of their advice in enabling
me to frame such a Bill to amend the present Act, as,
it is hoped, will meet the defects which practical ex-
perience of its working has developed.

When the Act became law on the 1st of March,
and I was appointed Chief Inspector, the question
came to be considered how the contribution to the
"Scab Act Fund" was to be levied, and who should
be appointed Receiver. It appeared evident that if
the contributions were to be paid direct to the Trea-
sury, grave difficulties would be likely to arise
through errors and inaccuracies on the part of sheep-
owners complying with a law new to them in its
forms, and to a considerable section of them exceed-
ingly distasteful both in its letter and its spirit;
that these errors and inaccuracies would involve a
large amount of correspondence which it would be
inconvenient to carry on in the Treasury; and there-
fore it was considered by the Government advisable
that, in the first place, in addition to the duties of
Chief Inspector, I should also undertake to receive
the contributions under the Act.

I willingly acquiesced in this decision, although I
was quite aware it would involve a great amount of
labour not contemplated when I accepted the Chief
Inspectorship. Undoubtedly the duties of Receiver
have involved much labour, as the records of the
office will show; but I do not regret having under-
taken this additional duty, as, after two seasons'
collection, I am satisfied the arrangement has
prevented difficulties arising which would have pro-
duced great irritation in the minds of many sheep-
owners; and although these difficulties would perhaps
have been trifling in themselves, and the amounts
involved of a very petty character indeed, still I am
persuaded they would have very materially interfered
with the successful launching of the Act.

The preliminary work which had to be done after
the Act came into operation in March, 1870, the
collection of the first contribution, and occasional
visits to public sales, fully occupied my time until
the month of June of that year, when it appeared to
me to be necessary that two Inspectors should be
appointed---one in the northern and the other in the
southern portion of the Island-to attend public sales
and as far as possible gradually put a check upon
diseased sheep being exposed for sale, or travelled on
the public highways. This duty the two Inspectors,
with my assistance, were enabled to perform up to
the shearing season of 1870-71, when, the compulsory
dipping provisions having come into operation, it
became necessary to appoint three more Inspectors.
Accordingly, in November, three additional Inspectors
were appointed, and stationed in such a manner as
appeared to me best calculated to enable them to see
that the law was carried out as fully as circumstances
and the great extent of country over which their
duties extended would admit of.

The wide extent of Inspectors' districts, and the
large number of small sheepowners, have proved
serious obstacles in the way of that complete inspec-
tion under the dipping provisions of the Act which I
should have desired to see carried out; but I have every
reason to be satisfied with the energy and judgment
which have been exercised by every member of the
Inspecting staff; and moreover, I have much pleasure
in having it in my power to report to you that the
results of the operation of the Scab Act up to the
present time may safely be pronounced eminently
satisfactory-an opinion which many of its former
opponents, with commendable candour, now freely
admit to be correct.

I am in receipt of written expressions of opinion
from sheepowners in every district throughout the
Island, bearing the amplest testimony to the great
and beneficial change which the Act has already