PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. 
519 
remaining 41 per cent, was imported dead meat. Those who were inter- 
ested in this matter did not desire to impose any restrictions beyond those 
that were absolutely necessary, but they asked that whenever there was any 
suspicion of disease the animals imported should be slaughtered at the port 
at which they arrived, and such a step they considered necessary as a safe- 
guard. The increased price of meat was partly owing to the fact that during 
the last two seasons there had not been a good supply of that food which 
some home stock required. 
An Eon. Member moved that the House be counted, but exactly forty 
members, including the Speaker, were found to be present. 
Mr. Beach, resuming, said that in the county to which he belonged re- 
strictions were at one time relaxed, but it was found necessary to reimpose 
them as a measure of self-defence, and the local authorities only asked that 
their acts should not be set aside by it being permitted to import with- 
out restriction cattle which came from countries where it was known that 
disease had prevailed to an alarming extent. 
Mr. Forster said that although the hon. member for Norfolk had made 
a severe attack on the department with which he was connected, he did not 
regret that the subject had been brought before the House, although he 
could not admit that his hon. friend had made out a case for a committee of 
inquiry, the appointment of which would imply some degree of censure. 
Complaint had been made that the department was unnecessarily expensive, 
and that it had very little to do. When he became responsible for the 
working of the department, he found there Dr. Williams as the permanent 
head of that branch to which this amendment related, and if any blame 
was due it should rather rest on him, who was the Parliamentary head of 
the department, than on an official whose industry and judgment he had found 
to be of the greatest service. With respect to the supposition that there 
was nothing to do, he must point out that shortly after he became Vice-Presi- 
dent the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act was passed with two objects, 
one being to prevent the importation of diseased animals, the other to take 
steps against the spread of infection at home. The first object was at- 
tempted to be fulfilled to some extent by the previous Government, but no 
attempt was made to check the home disease. Any interference with the 
trade concerning a main part of the food of the people was a serious matter, 
and no one in his position would be able to hold office for a single day with- 
out having a responsible and intelligent staff capable of advising and giving 
information as to the spread of the cattle disease at home and abroad. The 
attempt to prevent the spread of the home disease was a new duty, and by 
the agency of 1180 inspectors in Engiand and Wales alone, the central 
office was brought into daily communication with the local authorities. Day 
after day pressing cases were brought before him, on which more informa- 
tion was requested, and though the office did not attempt to interpret the 
law, it was an erroneous notion to suppose that it did not answer general 
inquiries. Cases were brought under its notice from day to day ; the cor- 
respondence, independent of returns, was enormous, and the number of let- 
ters that came into Colonel Harness’s department was more than 30,000. 
However, he did not think that the objection of his hon. friend was that the 
office had nothing to do, but that it had better not have done what it has 
done. It was the duty of a person in his position to consider what was in- 
tended to be done when the Act was passed, and what was the best way of 
carrying that intention out. As regards foreign importation, he understood 
the principle of the Act was that there should be only such restrictions on 
the import of foreign cattle as was necessary to prevent the spread of the 
disease ; and that for this purpose cattle coming from a country considered 
dangerous should be slaughtered at the ports of landing. Consequently, all 
