A VOICE FROM A BACK GULLY.

Cromwell Argus, Volume II, Issue 103, 31 October 1871, Page 6

A VOICE FROM A BACK GULLY.

[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents').

To the Editor of the Cromwell Argus. Sin,—Those gentlemen of the long strides, those minions of the squatters, whose duty it is to poison dogs, and occasionally tend on flocks and herds, are certainly displaying an amount of assiduity in wliat seems to be the principal portion of their duties, which, although it might call forth the approbation of their employers, is spoken of in strongly condemnatory terms by the miners of this district.

These ignoble Croydous put ma somewhat in mind of Glo'ster: " they can smile, and murder while they smile." They can throw a piece of poisoned meat to a poor little inoffensive cur, that is chained in front of his master's hut, and than deliberately go and address the owner (who is perhaps working some distance away) in tonus of affability awl friendship. A dog is man's companion, and too often the only one a miner has, for sometimes weeks togothe", in some of the outlying gullies. He is Compelled to pay a yearly license of ten shillings for the innocent pleasure of this companionship, yet is he ever subject to have his canine friend destroyed by the dark-dealing hand of some prowling shepherd. By permitting their dogs to roam at large on a sheep-walk, miners are sure to bring on themselves th 3 odium and enmity of the runhohler. who will doubtless advance the argument, " that diggers cannot expect to get fat mutton if the shssp are prevented from grazing by being continually harried by useles3 curs." So far, so good. Bat I have a dog that hai never been off the chain sineo leaving its mother ; consequently, I thought I should not be the source of any annoyance to tho station-holders, and that their

sheep would feel unmolested, in so far as I was concerned. That this was an erroneous idea I had formed, I was not Ion;' in discovering, the report in limstly reaching my ears that the dor; j was actually disturbing the sheep by its bark- j vug ; and my poor Tray was pourtrayel—excuse the pun, Sir,—as being one of the most voeife- \ Tons and pertinacious barkers ever yet heard in j the Province Verily, this is unsupportable ; j 'that because a man happens to possess a dog with !tn exuberance of canine spirits, he should be looked upon as a nuisance. The :mre I think over the matter, the more j am I inclined to the belief, that had the squat-1 tevs the power, they would so lord ib o'er the isle, that miuei'S working on their runs would not be allowed to talk in a loud tone of voie~?; j cooeying would be considered a crying sin, and I "both it and whistling made an indictable offence. I Now, Sir, I should like to know whether a man would be justified in taking the law into j his own hands, supposing him to have discovered j one of those emissaries of the pastoral de.ipots in the act of laying poison close to the door of his habitation ; further supposing it to be the ease that there were some wee toldlhv bairns playing about in proximity to the threshold. 'For it is my opinion that unless shepherds are more careful with their strychnine, other lives than those of dogs will be lost in this distri t. What with tho Chinese and the splatters; what with tho dread of having one's dog and even cat destroye I, and one's horse impounded ; and what with being "squeezed" almost beyond endurance by a muddling Government,—l feel scarcely at my ease in tlm Caledonia of the South, and begin to see the expediency of making tracks, with the toes turned towards some more promising land.—l am, &c., October 18. DaMPEB.