CATTLE TRESPASS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 506, 20 May 1881, Page 2

CATTLE TRESPASS.

To the Editor.

Sir, —As one of a rather numerous class, who have neither flocks, herds, nor lands, and j*et have to travel the public roads of the district, I read your report of the meeting of the ratepayers of the Akaroa and Wainui Road District, held at the Head of the Bay last Saturday, in reference to the pounding of catUe on the roads, with some degree of interest, not unmixed with surprise. The first thing i.h'.t strikes one is the utterly selfish and narrow view the speakers representing the majority take of the subject. One would imagine that the roads, instead of being the Queen's high-' way and for the use cf the public at all times and for all 'time, are simply an adjunct to the holding of the roadside cockatoo for the purpose of relieving his overstocked section. I suppese even the noisiest of the majority of the malcontents at the meeting will allow that roads are use less unless kept clear of obstructions of all descriptions, and it will be in the experience of every one who has occasion to travel the main road in the Akaroa and Wainui district after dark that straying cattle select the middle of that road for camping ground. This brings me to the rather strange fact that all the speakers at the meeting omit the very question of danger to life and limb which naturally occurs to every one, unless the pastoral mind, to be of primary importance.

The Legislature, in framing the various Provincial Ordinances now in force, seem to have had strong ideas on the subject of cattle at large, and the 73rd sec. of "The Canterbury Eoads Ordinance" lays it down as one of the functions of a Road Board that cattle found straying within tlieir boundaries shall be impounded by some person duly authorised by the Board in that behalf, and the 4th sec. of " The Trespass of Cattle Ordinance" makes special provision for the impounding of cattle " found straying in or lying about any thoroughfare, highway, oi other public place." After all the solemn enactments it is reserved for a noisy faction of the residents here, who may have had an interview with the pouiulkcoper or the ranger, to repeal all this and to say "no blade of grass shall be wasted." The mounted public can travel at the iminent risk of their lives, the footsore traveller can run the chance of being gored by an angry bull, and generally to make traveling about as dangerous as it is in an African jungle, instead of a civilised Colony with the much vaunted . local self-government. I feel sure that the meeting did not represent either the common sense, or the inteligence of the district, and I am glad to see that the Board nt its meeting, held immediately after tlia public meetiii/f, took not the slightest notice of the resolution carried by so large a majority. There can be no doubt bat that if the district was police! a "larger majority still would endorse the action of the Board in the appointment of a Ranger, and safely leave all matters of detail to them.

Mr Wiliiams, statement of the position was at once to the point and judicious, and I do not quite despair of the public men of tlie district, when gentlemen can be found capable of stating their views without few or favor, in the midst of what must have been a kind or hornets' nest of agriculturalists with a grievance. Mr Williams also very appropriatley characterises Mr McDonald's mythical statement in reference to the allegorical cheese and wool, that it was possible to raise off the roads as clap trap. lam quite surprised that Mr McDonald's usually ponderous and philosophic manner could on this occasion lead him into the realms of fancy and imagination, This gentleman has recently developed in his public utterance a method of hunting with the hare, and running with the hounds. It requires a more astute public man to pprlonn this feat successfully, indeed I doubt if it ever has been successfully done. It Was' reserved for this gentleman in his place in the Council the other day, to discover that the appointment of a ranger to look up unregistered dogs in the County would be unpopular. Perhaps Mr McDonald would kindly say what taxes are popular about Wainui, and he might in this way giv3 the Taranaki Major a useful hint. I; fear that already I have trespassed on your space, and' have only to say that the absurdity of Mr Dusbury's motion, must be its answer. The idea of a contractor after his day's work, spending his evening hours impounding cattle as a relaxation from hid labors, could only exist in'a bucolic fancy -nurtured upon the verdant pastures of liobinson's Bay.—l am, etc., > A WAYFARING MAN.'.'