542 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 



because remuneration for the loss of tlie animals was a question that 

 Avas decided by the magistrates and local committees in the various 

 coimties, who had full power to assess at any sum, within the limit of 

 the Act of Parliament, that they might think proper. That Act had, 

 however, come into operation at a late period, so that many persons 

 could not be compensated for their losses ; and, generally speaking, 

 the compensation granted under the Act had throughout the coxmtry 

 been rather niggardly, and ought to have been larger. The " stamijing- 

 out " system had no doubt lost much of its effect owing to its not 

 having been rigidly carried out. Cases of cure ought never to have 

 been heard of after the passing of the Act which the farmers them- 

 selves had requested the Government to introduce. For it was not 

 the absolute cure that constituted the saving, but it was the keeping 

 of diseased cattle in the neighbourhood that caused the loss. Hence 

 the " stamping-out " system having only been carried out partially had 

 not produced its jiist and proper eifect. Moreover, it was to be 

 lamented that that system had not been adopted and put in force 

 sooner ; and further, that in many counties the Act of Parliament, 

 which was based upon soimd princii)les, had been evaded more or less 

 by the very persons who had been most noisy in demanding legislation 

 upon the subject. 



With reference to the question of insm-ance, without saying any- 

 thing for or against the plan of Dr, Farr or any other, as far as his 

 experience went, it led him to conclusions entirely adverse to the 

 voluntary principle. What happened last year might occur again ; 

 and the results proved that nothing founded uj)on the voluntary 

 principle had the slightest chance of success. If it had not hitherto, 

 there was no reason why it should hereafter. He had received letters 

 on this subject from farmers in Silesia, where the cattle plague 

 made its apiDcarance periodically every few years, and it was really 

 astonishing how small a sum, in the shape of a head-tax, paid into a 

 Government Fund, was sufiicient to meet the losses. He took it, that 

 the loss would not require the payment of an insurance of 10s. a-piece. 

 They might as well insm'e the moon as to ask the farmers to do 

 that. What ought to be done was to have a head-tax on every 

 animal in the first instance, so small in amount that no man could 

 object to it, and then let the remuneration come from the public. 

 All counties where there was much cattle would pay the head-tax. 

 Counties where there was not much cattle would have no tax to jiay, 

 but the community at large would be called upon to pay the compen- 

 sation, and that was not now done. The head- tax to^ begin with, 

 then, should in his opinion be a small one. All systems of insurance 

 that only included a portion of the stock of a county must be wrong 

 in principle ; and if the system were voluntary, one man would insure 

 and another would not. 



Previous to the breaking out of the rinderpest there were three or four 

 large companies for mutual insm'ance of diseased cattle in operation, 

 and every one of them had broken down ; and for this reason : one man 

 said, " I take good care of my stock, and my neighboui- does not, T)o 

 you think I am such a fool as to go to an insurance company when he 



