The things that people buy!

Farming in New Zealand is big business. Farm produce and timber exports provide over seventy percent of the country's income. Despite the free-and-easy attitude of their ancestors, New Zealanders are fortunate to be free of the world's worst agricultural pests and diseases. The country could not afford the waste and tragedy that would occur if any of these should arrive and take hold.

Most people who bring in material that could carry pests and diseases do so unwittingly. In the exotic places they have visited they have been tempted by displays of souvenirs and fun items made of bone, wood, straw and feathers, never dreaming that the fan, or the little bag of Holy Land soil, or the seeds of giant redwood trees, could harbour potential tragedy. It is not until they read the handout given to them on the plane or ship as they near New Zealand that they begin to think.

Well, one has bought that lovely deer ornament, that little straw basket, that funny bird made out of a lump of camel dung. What does one do with it? Hide it? Never. The Quarantine Service is not interested in prosecuting people. It wishes to keep a country healthy, not create criminals. If the item is declared, they can fumigate it so that the risk is nil. This service to the private individual is absolutely free. The item is posted to your home address, or to another address if it was intended as a gift. If it has to be destroyed—which is surprisingly seldom—this will be done at no cost. However some people—though luckily, not too many—deliberately attempt to smuggle material into the country. Cans of pork and beef have their labels switched for innocuous ones— baked bean labels are surprisingly popular. Various herbal remedies are hidden in sponge bags. The shamrock plant from 'home' or the plants from Jim's grave should be declared. The Quarantine Service may put them in quarantine—they need not necessarily destroy them. To make things easier all round, plan ahead. Ask the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries about it before you leave. You'll be surprised how cooperative they are.

There are a few people who make a business out of smuggling material into the country. The wings of beautiful and rare birds are brought in secretly, to make trout flies. Chilly bins with false bottoms are used to bring in exotic fish. The first class mails can be a favourite smuggler's route. In 1969 an apiarist tried three times to have American queen bees sent to him through the post. The thought that it would have been just as tragic for him, as for everyone else in the honey business, if the bees had brought bee mite or foul brood, apparently never crossed his mind.

While I was visiting the quarantine office some flowers were brought in from a licensed importation of cut flowers for an Auckland boutique. The leaves of the roses were covered with a red rust—a rust that has not yet established itself in New Zealand. If these flowers had got past the Quarantine officer, the gardeners and nurserymen of New Zealand could have experienced a new epidemic. These photographs show a selection from the Service's 'museum' of prohibited articles. Many of them were not confiscated: the owners simply did not turn up to collect, or failed to leave an address, when the items were taken for fumigation. Some of these objects are obviously dangerous—the snakes, the seeds and the jars of unprocessed meat. Others are a little sad, the bright mementoes of peoples' overseas holidays.

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