Stray Cattle

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 42, 24 September 1892, Page 2

Stray Cattle

We do not intend to comment on the case as it is now sub judice, but we think it advisable that all farmers and others who are liable to have stray cattle trespassing on their several properties should make careful note of tbe incident which is narrated by telegram from Invercargill, where a settler was committed for trial on a charge of killing a cow, the property of another settler, with intent to carry away the carcase. The cow had been running on the land of the accused for two years, and over eighteen months ago he advertised that unless it was removed it would be destroyed. No one claiming it, he killed it in July last. He never denied killing it, and showed the hide to the owner, who demanded five pounds for the beast. This demand was refused, and a criminal prosecution was instituted, and we may assume the defendant was committed for trial because bail was fixed at £200. Now, we are well aware that one or two very similar cases have occurred here, only that the persona who were, much against their will, forced to give free grazing to stray cattle, either made themselves acquainted with the provisions of the Impounding Act, or, better still, consulted a solicitor, and thereby avoided making, as in the case of the Invercargill man, the blunder of getting within the meshes of the net of the criminal law.

It is well known in Wellington that the Hon. Mr Cadman and Carroll are in disagreement over the cardinal points of the Native policy, and (says the Parliamentary correspondent of the Napier Telegraph) several members of the Government party state that if Mr Cadman does not make an effort and show some backbone he will get no one to follow him again. We may infer from this that the policy of the Hon. Mr Cadman is the better one, and Mr Carroll is in the wrong.