2220
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 76

(b.) Coffee-plants or any portion thereof, with the exception of seed.
(c.) Eucalypt plants or any portion thereof, with the exception of seed
(d.) Coniferous plants or any portion thereof, with the exception of seed.
(e.) Stone-fruit trees or any portion thereof, including seeds, that were grown or produced in any State, Province, or Territory of the United States of America, or the Dominion of Canada, or in any other country in which either of the diseases known as peach-yellows or peach-rosette is found or reported to exist.
(f.) Peach-stocks and peach-stones from any country whatsoever.
(g.) Timber with the bark on, except scaffolding poles shipped from the Baltic Sea or from Canada.

3. The importation of any tree or portion thereof, with the exception of fruit, seed, seedling stocks of fruit trees for budding or grafting purposes, and blight-proof stock for apples, shall be allowed only by special permission from the Minister for Agriculture. No permit shall be granted for the introduction of more than ten trees or one hundred cuttings of any one variety, nor shall permits be issued for more than an aggregate of one hundred trees or one thousand cuttings to any party during one year. For the purposes of this clause the term “tree” shall include any plant of the nature of a tree excepting garden shrubs. In case of dispute as to whether any plant falls under this restriction, the decision of the Minister shall be final.

4. All trees, plants and portions thereof, such as cuttings, roots, tubers and bulbs, and fruit of all kinds, and their packages, cases, pots, or other coverings, shall, before being delivered to the consignees, undergo an examination by an officer appointed for that purpose, to determine, as far as possible, whether or not insects or plant-diseases are present; and it shall be the duty of the consignee or his duly appointed agent to open the coverings and to afford every facility to the examining officer during the examination.

5. All trees and woody plants, together with their covering and packing material, shall, as a precautionary measure against the introduction of injurious insects, be fumigated at the expense of the consignee, in the manner prescribed by and to the satisfaction of the examining officer; and if the examining officer deems the treatment expedient, he may extend it to all other plants and all parts thereof.

6. Should any article, in the examination provided for in clause 4, be actually found to be infested in whole or in part with any insect or plant disease the introduction of which would be prejudicial to the interests of the colony, it shall, together with all other articles in the same receptacle, with all covering and packing material, be cleansed or disinfected by the consignee, or at his expense, in the manner prescribed by and to the satisfaction of the examining officer; and if not so cleansed or disinfected, or if any treatment at command shall be deemed by the examining officer, or found by him, to be inefficient for the absolute eradication of the insect or disease, or if the examining officer knows the insect or disease to be of specially dangerous character, the articles shall be destroyed without delay.

7. Ordinarily, the inspection and other treatment of consignments imposed by these regulations shall take place on the premises provided for the purpose by the Government at the port of entry; but special arrangements may be made with the Minister for Agriculture for the execution of all the provisions of clauses 4, 5, and 6 on the premises of the consignee, when approved facilities, inclusive of a proper fumigation-chamber, are there provided.

8. On the examining officer being satisfied with respect to a consignment that all the regulations and conditions herein set forth have been fully complied with, he shall issue a certificate to that effect to the consignee; and before the issue of such certificate the consignment shall be under his control for the purposes of these regulations.

9. Articles subject to examination under these regulations introduced into this colony by post shall be intercepted and examined by an officer appointed for the purpose, and if found infected with any noxious insect or plant disease shall be destroyed or cleansed at the discretion of such examining officer, and if requiring fumigation shall be so treated. All expenses of treatment shall be borne by the addressee.

10. The Government does not hold itself responsible for any loss or damage that may result from the destruction of articles under these regulations, or from any process that may be considered necessary to cleanse or disinfect the articles, or to discover the existence or otherwise of any insect or plant disease.

11. These regulations shall not apply to any consignment imported in bond for places beyond the borders of the colony; nor to canned, dried, or otherwise preserved articles in which there is no longer any plant life, with the exception of timber with the bark on.

T. Y. DUNCAN,
Minister for Agriculture.

Government Meteorological Observatory.

METEOROLOGICAL Observations, Wellington, for the month of August, 1904. Altitude above the sea, 140 ft. Observations taken at 9.30 a.m.

From Self-registering Instruments, for Twenty-four Hours previously.

• Means, &c.
  † Same month previous years.

NOTE.—Month finer than usual, but commenced with very wintry weather. Anticyclonic conditions prevailed from 5th to 17th. On 17th glass fell rapidly for a depression, bringing wind and rain from the north. Glass rose slowly, through a low area from the west coalescing and producing further unsettled but less severe atmospheric conditions. High winds on 17th, 19th, 20th, and 25th; hail and sleet on 3rd and 4th; thunder and lightning on 3rd, 25th, and 26th. Mean humidity, 73 per cent.; mean dew-point, 39·6° F.; mean elastic force of vapour, 0·246 in. Prevailing winds between N.W. and N.E. Earthquake, direction N.N.W. and S.S.E., severe, at 10.21 a.m. on 9th.

BRIEF CLIMATOLOGICAL TABLE, CHIEF STATIONS, AUGUST, 1904.

Average temperature, North Island: 47·7° Fah.
South Island: 43·0° Fah.
Average rainfall, North Island: 4·77 in.
South Island: 5·20 in.