County Intelligence.

Dunstan Times, Issue 995, 13 May 1881, Page 2

County Intelligence.

MEMORIAL. The following memorial is going round the stations for signature:— To the hon. the House of Representatives, in Parliament assembled. The humble petition of the undersigned sheweth—1, That your petitioners are persons following the calling of shepherds in the Colony of New Zealand. 2. That it is a necessary part of the calling of a shepherd that he should own and keep (and your petitioners do own and keen) an average number of three or four Collie dogs, without which your petitioners would be unable to obtain employment as or to follow their said occupation of shepherds.

3. That by an Act passed by the General Assembly of New Zealand in its last session, intituled “The Dog Registration Act, 1880,” all dogs are required to be registered, and for which registration (subject to one exempted class, namely rablnters) there is an annual fee of ten shillings to be paid for every dog, and in default of compliance the owner is liable jto a very heavy penalty. 4. That your petitioners respectfully represent that the registration fee upon dogs used solelv for shepherding is a tax that is both excessive and unreasonable, it being levied upon a class of persons whose means are simply wages, very limited in amount, and upon whom necessarily the tax falls very heavily, and in an aggravated form, your petitioners having to pay for several dogs. 5. Your petitioners would also represent that the fee is a tax upon labor, and therefore obnoxious in principle'; and that they have in equity a claim to exemption fully as strong as those of rabbiters, whose dogs are ex empt from payment. 6. Your petitioners do not object to the provisions of Section 5 of the said “ Dog Registration Act, 1880." Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that your Honorable House will be pleased to take the matter of this petitioninto your favorable consideration with a view of granting such relief to your petitioners as to your Honorable House may seem meet.