PRIVATE LEGISLATION RE MILK 49 



1904. 



The Departmental Committee on Sheep Scab presented 

 its report in August. This report recognised the necessity 

 of compulsory dipping, and in November the Council expressed 

 its approval of this report. 



The Chamber sent repiesentatives to support a deputation 

 to the President of the Board (Lord Onslow) arranged by 

 the Bath and West Society, to urge the desirability of appoint- 

 ing a Departmental Committee to consider the question of 

 Ab< rtion in cattle, and the expediency or otherwise of legis- 

 lating upon it. Lord Onslow agreed to set up a scientific 

 Committee to investigate this disease at an early date. 



Sixteen priVate Acts were passed containing the Model 

 Milk Clauses, but uniformity was not quite maintained, for 

 the London County Council were allowed, after a fight, to 

 insert some special provisions. Manchester proposed to 

 insert extra clauses, but after some discussion with Sir Edward 

 Strachey, these were withdrawn. Two other Corporations 

 applied for variations, but they at once agreed to make 

 them conform to the Model. The London County Council 

 peremptorily declined even to consider any alterations to 

 their Bill, so Sir Edward Strachey (as Chairman of the Par- 

 liamentary Committee) moved the following Instruction on 

 the motion for second reading in the House of Commons: 



" That it be an instruction to the Committee to insert pro- 

 visions in the Bill to provide that a cow suspected of suffering 

 from Tuberculosis of the Udder may be removed, and that a 

 sample of such cow's milk shall be submitted before slaughter 

 to the Medical Officer of Health for the county for bacteriological 

 examination, and to provide, if this examination shows evidence 

 that the cow is so diseased, that the animal shall be slaughtered 

 in the presence of and examined by a veterinary surgeon appointed 

 in the way proposed in Sub-section (2) of Clause 34 : and to 

 provide that if, on examination, the veterinary surgeon certifies 

 that such cow was not suffering from Tuberculosis of the Udder, 

 the Council shall pay, in addition to the compensation provided 

 for in Sub-section (3) of Clause 34, a sum, not exceeding 50 per 

 cent, of the full value of such cow immediately before slaughter, 

 as special damages for loss of such cow : to provide that, if 

 the veterinary surgeon certifies that the cow was so diseased, 

 the Council shall pay compensation in the manner provided by 



E 



