192 
THE SPREAD OF PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN AUSTRALIA. 
We would direct the attention of the stock-owners of 
Victoria to the efforts being made in certain quarters in the 
way of hushing up all intelligence connected with the rapid 
spread of the above virulent scourge among the cattle of the 
colony. Which is the more beneficial to the stock-owners’ 
interests—that the truth should be freely published in respect 
to this matter, or that all sorts of subterfuges should be re¬ 
sorted to for the purpose of keeping in existence an inca¬ 
pable Stock Department, merely because the personal con¬ 
veniences, in respect to place and pay, of certain individuals 
who possess a considerable amount of wire-pulling influence 
are at stake? During the past twelve months the attention of 
the authorities has been continually directed, through our 
columns, to the incompetency of the present system of stock 
disease supervision, and to the increasing prevalence of 
pleuro-pneumonia. All attempts of this kind, however, have 
been met by the stock department with the languid assertion 
that sensational attempts were being made to “get up a scare,” 
and as a consequence no steps have been taken to prevent the 
terrible scourge in question from effecting a firm hold in the 
majority of the districts throughout the colony. Reports are 
now coming in from all points that the disease has been kept 
quiet in hopes that it would pass away, but as the losses in 
many instances recently have become too severe, further con¬ 
cealment has been found impossible. On the one hand there 
has been concealment on the part of owners of infected herds, 
and on the other an incapable department, desirous in the 
first place not to discover disease because of the trouble con¬ 
nected with its treatment; and, in the second place, unable 
to detect disease, even when accidentally brought into contact 
with it. In response to charges made by us as to the spread 
of pleuro, one of the stock inspectors, Mr, Shaw, made a re¬ 
port recently to the effect that during a week’s travelling he 
had only succeeded in finding traces of the disease in one cow, 
and forthwith there appeared an article of the usual “ pooh, 
pooh” character in the journal which champions the cause of 
stock department incompetency. Now we find, by means of 
the local press and by correspondents’ communications, that 
the districts inspected by Mr. Shaw, viz. Wahgunyah, Ruth- 
erglen, Chiltern, and adjoining localities have had the pleuro 
firmly established during the last nine months, carrying off 
as many as from ten to twenty head even in small herds. The 
border districts are being constantly infected by travelling 
cattle from Queensland and New South Wales, while during 
