Blackmail signature pointed to likely hoax

Waiheke Station farm manager Neville Dick watches yesterday as MAF vets scrutinise his hereford weaners for signs of foot-and-mouth. Picture / Brett Phibbs

The two-page letter that claimed foot-and-mouth disease had been released on Waiheke Island asked for a cheque payment to a name similar to a well-known brand of farming equipment , the Herald understands.

Police have refused to release the letter, which demanded a change in tax policy and a large sum of money, although they released a picture of the envelope with a typed address and a postmark dated Monday.

Assistant Commissioner Peter Marshall said yesterday police had fielded a number of calls about possible suspects and were interviewing people.

But they were still seeking further information including any about suspicious activity on Waiheke Island over the past week.

He raised the possibility it may have been a Massey University capping joke, although he said there was nothing in the letter to suggest this.

Massey University Students' Association president Iain Galloway said he did not believe any of its students, many of whom came from farming families or were training to be farmers, "would want to be associated with this".

The letter was received in Prime Minister Helen Clark's office on Tuesday. It is believed to have also laid out a detailed plan for a change in tax policy.

It said a vial of the foot-and-mouth virus had been released on the island on Monday and a further vial would be released elsewhere.

Officials have not disclosed the location but confirmed yesterday the date set for the further threatened release was tomorrow.

Helen Clark said yesterday "the implications for damage to our economy of a genuine scare would be catastrophic. "

Police said under the Crimes Act anyone convicted of threatening to commit a crime that would cause major damage to the economy could be sentenced to seven years in jail.

The letter was sent from a Manawatu postal sorting centre which processes mail from the lower North Island. Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton has said a simulated foot-and-mouth disease exercise undertaken this year may have sparked some sort of copycat response.

MAF biosecurity director Barry O'Neil said the author had threatened to to spread the disease by feeding livestock hay which had been infected by the virus through a vial.

While it was not impossible to infect livestock that way, there were more effective ways of doing it, he said. This cast further doubt on the likelihood of the threat being real.

The Government breathed a sign of relief yesterday over the reaction of both trading partners and financial markets. To date only Mexico has taken action, and will consider imports on a case by case basis.

A scrap broke out in Parliament yesterday over the Government's handling of the issue, when Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton tabled part of a transcript of an interview National leader Don Brash had with TVNZ, in which the minister said Dr Brash suggested the Government should have kept the threat secret.

Asked what he thought of the Government's handling of the incident Mr Sutton said Dr Brash responded: "I am surprised they made a public statement about it at all, to be frank. If it's only a hoax, they have done a lot of damage to our reputation. I would have thought they would have tried harder to find out whether in fact there was any truth in the allegations at all."

National deputy leader Gerry Brownlee said there were several foot and mouth hoaxes last year, but the Government had not reacted.

"The unanswered question in this Parliament right now is did Helen Clark lie to the Sunday Star-Times."

- additional reporting, NZPA