ATTACKED BY SHEEP

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 51, 18 August 1939, Page 6

ATTACKED BY SHEEP

wainui farmer;s story i FINED Q$ m THEFT , .CHARGE Claude Sydney Wells, well-known farmer, garbage collector, and fire, wood merchant., of Wainui, Claimed to be the unfortunate victim Of circumstances in that he was knocked down by stampeding sheep, and so was discovered in proximity to one of them by the son, of the owner, when he appeared before Judge Harvey and'Mr G. A. Brabant, J.P., in the Whakatane Police Court, to answer charges «f theft and attempted theft of a sheep valued at £2. tho; property of George Melville, "Mokorua" Station, Whakatane. The police withdrew the charge'of theft, and Wells was convicted and fined £5, or 14 days imprisonment, on the attempted theft charge. He paid the fine. Evidence was given by John MeL ville, son of the owner of ''Mokorua'" station, to the effect that about 12.15 a.m. on Wednesday he was cycling to his home by the Maraetotara Gorge Road. Several rams were camped in a grassy patch about half a mile from his home when he went into Whakatane about 7.30 p.m. and on his -return he looked for them, but could not see them. A little way up the road a motor truck was drawn into the side near a clay bank. SHEEP GRUNTED Witness said he heard, a sheep grunting, ajid heard someone trampling sticks on the ground. He flashed his bicycle lamp over the fence and saw a sheep down on the ground and ''Pansy'' Wells half sitting and half lying across it. He could see him quite distinctly. It looked as though he were trying to hide by keeping low. Melville said: "What's going on, here?" 1 Accused replied: ''Just getting a bit of mutton.' r Melville said: "You've come to t.he wrong place. This is private property..'^ Accused replied: "I thought these sheep were left here by drovers*" ''I then got a bit sarcastic and said 'They aren't much good any way' and he said 'Why? Are they too thin' "■ witness added. Melville said Wells flashed a torch on his face and asked him who he was. Witness told him and Wells went to his truck and drove off.

1 Melville said he looked at the truck earlier. It was Wells' vehicle. ' He saw no other but did not look in the cab. The incident occurred about two chains away from where the sheep had been earlier in the evening, and it was most unL usual for sheep to move on a dark night. He thought that Wells had herded them into a gully. In his opinion Wells, was holding the ram down and trying to stop it from making a- noise, but in lying across it he caused it to grunt. That was what drew his attention in, the first place. WELLS' STORY. Wells in ft statement said that when half-way up the gorge road jii the night in question Jie stopped hi>; truck and went into the paddock He frequently had occasion to stop when driving home for the same purpose. He had climbed over the fence, and was hanging on by the wire when someone scared, seme sheep and they started to move along the fence. He stepped back and fell down the hill. He must have scared the sheep arid there was one not far from him when,-the young lad came along as he was struggling to get up on the slippery ground. Constable F. Fuller described how he went to Wainui on Wednesday morning after the complaint from Melville. He looked at Wells" truck and at its tyres. Wells was cutting ti-tree and said I know what you are here for." The constable asked for an explanation of what happened last night, and Wells said "Oh, about the sheep or something." Constable Fuller added that he had not mentioned anything about sheep Wells told him that he went into the paddock for a certain reason and that a sheep came along and knocked him down. Constable ( Fuller said that the place on which Wells said he- was standing was a narrow ledge* along the top of the fence with a steep slope for many yards. The Bench said they could not accept Wells' story. He was fined £5 and costs.