The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1892. Stolen Sheep

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 57, 1 November 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1892. Stolen Sheep

As a considerable number of the sheep farmers in this district have been victimised by having their flocks reduced by thieves, the following extract from the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Police should prove interesting : — Another prevalent crime in the colony is sheep-stealing. Though there has been a decrease during the year, the present high price cf sheep renders it probable that the decrease is not likely to last long. In dealing with this class of crime the police find considerable difficulties. Firstly, the robberies are not discovered and reported till long after they have been committed, as in many cases the flock owners have no means of ascertaining their losses, except at stated periods ; and before the police have information of the robbery or any chance of capturing the offenders, th© stolon sheep are killed, and all traces obliterated. The imperfect and entirely unsatisfactory methods of branding also hold out great temptations tothesheep-stealers. There is an elaborate scheme of registration of brands, but it is the elaborations that makes it workable in theory and not in practice. The production of wool and frozen mutton is of such magnitude in New Zealand that the protection from losses by theft from those engaged in that industry becomes of a matter of absolute necessity." In our opinion the remedy lies in the hands of the farmers themselves. They should combine for mutual protection. But that is where the difficulty exist 9. Farmers will not combine, and nothing under the sun will ever make them. Each one is a little world unto himself. He is a microcosm. If one of them loses twenty sheep, he consoles himself with the reflection that his neighbour has lost thirty. He may and does grumble, for that is his nature, but he will not do any more. He thinks perhaps the first loss is the best, because he hates the law with it worries, loss of time, anxieties, while cross-examination by a smart criminal lawyer is to him a terror. For ourselves we have taken council with a man who knows and cares for these things, who has suggested as a possible safeguard that auctioneers should advertise the names of all vendors of stock ; that the monthly Slaughter House Returns should be read out at all Road Board or Borough Council Meetings, and that all owners of sheep should render an account to the local bodies of what they kill for home consumption. This would not entail much trouble or expense while it would bring into prominence the names of any persons who should not be vendors or consumers. This is presuming that the farmers really desire to put a atop to the practice of sheep and cattle stealing by which, in the aggregate, they lose so much from year to year. The following are the traffic returns for the Napier-Taranaki section dur ing the four weeks ending 1 7th September, 1892, and the corresponding period in 1891 : —

This is highly satisfactory, and as the wool season advances so will the revenue increase in all branches.

1892 1891 Passengers 5550 410 4820 1 3 Parcels ... 639 13 0 578 710 Goods ... 6083 2 11 5145 3 11 Mis'laneous 362 14 2 363 5 8 £12,585 4 11 £10,906 18 8