DEPASTURING CATTLE ON THE TOWN BELT.

Evening Star, Issue 3435, 24 February 1874, Page 2

DEPASTURING CATTLE ON THE TOWN BELT.

To the Editor. Sir,—l notice that an attempt is being made, by means of a memorial, to induce the City Council to al.er their decision with respect to the depasturing of cattle and horses on the Town Belt; but 1 venture to predict that weightier reasons influenced the City Council to the determination of olosing tho Belt against the depasturing of cattle and horses than are contained in the memorial in favor of a reversal of that decision. I have no doubt, Sir, that most of the members of our City Council have, during their term of office, inspected the Belt from end to end, and that that inspection is not likely to impress them in favor of the memorial. A well kept lawn may be a pleasing sight to a gardener, but to a tanner there is nothing like leather. We are told that if cattle and horses are excluded from the Belt it will soon “ become nothing better than a wilderness of noxious and unsightly weeds; the grass would become so rank that walking upon it would be out of the question,” while the fact is the very reverse of this would, in due time, be tho result. In that part where the natural beauty of the Belt has been tolerably well preserved—in North Dunedin—vegetation of the kind here set forth will not thrive ; the timber and shrubs, though not sufficiently c impact to destroy the pleasure of walking, are too close to admit sufficient light for a strong undergrowth. I maintain that in some parts the cattle have completely ruined the belt. All the young and small shrubs have been trampled under foot, while the beauty of the larger ones has been destroyed. At the same time yon can scarcely •ind a spot 20ft square free from droppings. Useful as this latter may be in a garden, it would scarcely conduce to the pleasure of a well kept lawn or croquet ground. I consider it nothing short of Vandalism to have allowed a Belt of land possessing such natural beauty as parts of tho - Town Belt used to possess to be despoiled both of beauty and utility as a place of recreation, for thepaltry consideration of what is derived from it by way of depasturing fees. At the same time to talk of the expense that will “have to be incurred for labor to maintain tbo Belt in a suitable condition for the purpose of a recreation ground” is a mere figment, as labor expended in the direction indicated would tend rather to destroy than improve the recreative properties of the Belt. The City Council, after deliberation, having come to the decision that it wi 1 be beneficial to the Belt and citizens to discontinue the depasturing system, L think, and truly hope, it will require other and more cogent reasons to induce them to reverse that decision. The Town Belt has been long enough devoted to the purposes of an accommodation paddock. -I am, &0., „, Rustic. Dunedin, February 24.