Kōrero: Government and agriculture

This notice in the Evening Post of November 1886 illustrates the powers which government employed to prevent outbreaks of sheep scab. An area has been declared infected, and stock are not permitted to move out of it. Farmers complained that they were unable to sell their sheep. Earlier in the century, provincial and central governments required the branding and dipping of sheep, and imposed harsh penalties on farmers caught with scabby flocks.