CHEAP DIPOSAL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 190, 8 December 1941, Page 5

CHEAP DIPOSAL

DEAD BEASTS IN RIVER

FARMERS METHOD

Although the method is probably thought to be "just what the doctor ordered" by the farmers concerned, the Harbour Board finds some expense involved when men on riverbank properties find the waters of the Whakatane the easiest burial ground for animals which have departed for their happy hunting or grazing grounds. During the past two months the Port Whakatane has liadi to be manoeuvred to various sandbanks to tow r the bodies of dead beasts to sea on no less than thirteen occasions. Possibly other bodies have succeeded in negotiating the bar without a pilot. There are others too who do not appreciate the river being used as a general refuse dump, and amongst these may be included a large number of residents who visited the Heads on a recent Sunday afternoon to find a partially decomposed body of an animal on the small beach. The Whakatane river is not the only river to be so used, as week-end visitors to Thornton rarely miss seeing several carcases floating near the mouth of the river. On one week-end no less than five were counted.