356 
PLEUR0-PNEUM0NIA TN AUSTRALIA. 
greater portion of the pastoral district of Murrumbidgee to 
any other part of New South Wales. This was only intended 
as a temporary measure,, and our decision was not rashly or 
inconsideratelv arrived at. Some of the commissioners, 
whose experience and information enabled them to form a 
more accurate estimate of the extent of the disease, were of 
opinion that, if a comprehensive prohibition was not in the 
first instance maintained, to keep the infection, if possible, 
within some certain limits till its actual bounds could be 
ascertained, the quarantines on infected runs merely, as they 
were found to be so, would be a sham and delusion, while 
every freedom was allowed to the stock on runs not examined, 
but perhaps more diseased, to go where they pleased. The 
owners of such runs would send off whatever stock they 
wished to dispose of, before the inspection reached them; 
and thus the infection would precede the examination, 
without any fixed line to arrest it. Besides, we are of opinion 
that no imaginary boundary over an open country, without 
some natural obstacle or fence to assist in breaking the inter¬ 
course between the herds, could be effectual for such a 
purpose ; and it was for these reasons that we recommended 
so much of the Murrumbidgee district to be placed under 
prohibition for the safety of the rest of the colony. The 
result has shown that, instead of being too comprehensive, 
the limits have not been sufficiently extended to circumscribe 
the malady. Besides, we found that working bullocks and 
herds of cattle travelling over stations which we afterwards 
knew to be infected, passed into the Lachlan district, in 
defiance of any power that the commissioners or inspectors 
possessed to prevent them. But, having since found that 
the disease extended far into the Lachlan district, of course 
the prohibition could be no longer of any value. Neither is 
it necessarv that our other recommendations offered at that 
time be now entertained. 
After leaving Ten Mile Creek we proceeded on our tour of 
inspection, the results of which will be gathered from our 
various progress reports. We append a tabulated return 
(No. 2) of the stations visited, and the state of the disease 
on each. This, however, may be far from correct as in¬ 
dicating the intensity of the disease on the several stations. 
In some instances we saw but a limited number of cattle, 
and we were satisfied when we found one decided case on 
each run, although there may have been other cattle more 
severely affected. 
We deemed it a matter of some importance to the owners 
of runs about the Upper Billy Bong, whose stations had been 
