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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Stock Department

Stock Department.

The Department Of Agriculture has its office in the Stock Exchange Buildings, 4 Water Street, Dunedin. The Department controls the state expenditure for keeping down the rabbit pest, and the inspection of stock. The departmental staff includes veterinary surgeons, who are available when an outbreak of disease is reported in stock, and fruit experts whose duty it is to advise on the most suitable fruits to grow in the various districts, and the best way to eradicate the pests and blights which attack orchards. With a view to keeping down the rabbit nuisance, inspectors and agents see that the provisions of the law are carried out. Men are also employed to keep down the pest on the Crown lands, and the expenditure thus made necessary, amounts to nearly £15,000 per annum. The Department administers the storage provided by the Government for dairy and other produce previous to shipment; and its staff also includes the instructors who have been appointed by the Government to advise farmers, and deliver lectures on butter and cheese making and the raising of poultry. Mr. J. E. Thomson is Inspector of Stock and Registrar of Brands for the district of Otago, Mr. T. A. Fraser Assistant Chief Inspector, and Mr. H. C. Wilkie, Government Veterinary Surgeon.

Mr. James Elliot Thomson , Inspector of Stock and Chief Registrar of Brands for Otago, was born in Argyleshire, Scotland. After a short stay in Victoria, he arrived in Canterbury, New Zealand, in 1854. He and his two brothers, Messrs Leslie and Andrew Thomson, took up the Otaio run, near Timaru, where they carried on sheepfarming until 1869. For seven years subsequently Mr. Thomson carried on sheepfarming on a run at Akitio, on the east coast of the Wellington district. In 1889 he retired from pastoral life to accept an appointment in the Stock Department, at Christchurch, and was transferred to his present position in Otago, in 1895. Mr. Thomson married a daughter of Mr. Isaac Sheath, a well known colonist, who arrived in Canterbury in 1861.

Mr. Thomas Archibald Fraser , Assistant Chief Inspector of Stock for the South Island, is a son of the late Hon. Captain Fraser. He was born in Inverness, Scotland. and was educated partly in France and the Channel Islands, and partly in Australia. Mr. Fraser came to Wellington with his parents in 1858. He joined the Lands Department page 142 of the Government service in 1892, and received his present appointment in the Department of Agriculture in 1896.