The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published. Daily. FRIDAY, DEC. 21, 1894. SHEEP-STEALING.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 150, 21 December 1894, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published. Daily. FRIDAY, DEC. 21, 1894. SHEEP-STEALING.

Tub farmers in this and other districts adjacent have for the last two or three years been complaining bitterly of the number of sheep which have from time to time unaccountably disappeared without a trace of them ever being found. This is all the more surprising because sometimes mobs of two or three hundred have been taken, without the owners having the slightest suspicion of the theft or knowledge of their loss until their flocks were mustered and counted. Of course the opportunity of doing anything has by that time gone past, of detecting the supposed offenders. When dealing with this subject before, we advised that sheepowners should combine for their mutual protection and form a Vigilance Committee, but the idea did not find favor among them i for some unexplained reason. We notice, in the Manawatu Farmer, an expression of opinion on this subject, to the effect that there is a " planting ground " somewhere in the ranges behind Levin. We believe that " there is something in it," because the thing has been done before in newly-opened country, and it may be done again. One of the best blocks of sheep country in the South Island was discovered and used by a sheepstealer for the purpose of concealing his plunder, and the track through McKenzie's Pass was only discovered by the merest accident, and the criminal detected and punished. It is interesting to note that had he honestly utilised his discovery, and taken up the land for himself, he | would, in a very few years, have been " rich beyond the dreams of avarice," but he had not the sense to do that, and to others went the profit. It is quite within the limits of possibility, therefore, that there are some secluded valleys in the Tararua and Ruahine ranges known only to a select few, or perhaps only to one man, in which comparatively large flocks may be kept until an opportunity is given of disposing of them with safety after the wool brands have disappeared with the fleeces, and the ear-marks have been " blended " so as to be past identification. The hint ought to be followed up.