OUTRAGES ON CATTLE: WHAT THE LAW IS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2992, 27 January 1881, Page 4

OUTRAGES ON CATTLE: WHAT THE LAW IS.

The Otago Daily Times, in reporting the proceedings in the Supreme Court, says that, in the charge against Alex. M'Leod, Mr Stout, the prisoner's counsel, when addressing the jury, commented upon the fact that the act of wounding a cow was made a felony unJer an English statute which had been re-enajted in New Zealand. The statute was paiv of the black code which had been made in England by the owners of cattle, who then were the law-makers. It had since been re-enacted several times, but each time the penalty under it had been diminished. It would, he considered, have been far better to have sued for the damage done, but then that would have given°the accused an opportunity of being heard, whereas in the present case, by another provision of the law, J the prisoner's mouth was closed. His Honor, in summing up', referred to the opening remarks of the prisoner's counsel in the following terms :-— " We have- to administer the law as we find it. It may possibly be that the law should be altered, but we have not to apologise for the law, much liess to pass it over. As a matter of fact, tbfe law was not a relic of feudal times. It is only within the last 150 years, or a little* more, that this crime has been made a felony, and I believe, as a matter of history, it was made a felony because outrages on cattle "were very numerous at the time. Though it may seem hard and harsh that the infliction of a trifling wound on an animal should be considered a felony, if it is considered that the word ' wound' was one of very large significance and includes _ gross acts of cruelty such as ham-stringing cattle, you will perhaps consider the law not so intrinsically absurd."