The Lyttelton Times. Saturday, October 11th.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 411, 11 October 1856, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times. Saturday, October 11th.

If we are to judge bj r some of our correspondents* letters, the agitation amongst the Stock-owners on the 'subject of the Scab Law is about to break out again. We do not pretend to be able to form a judgment upon the merits of the case. We' must be guided entirely by the weight of evidence adduced on either side by the Stockowners themselves. The law is one on which they alone ought to be consulted,for on it,in a great measure, hangs their chance of success or failure. Although the whole province is deeply interested in the prospects of the wool-growers, yet none but themselves are competent to furnish the data upon which legislation for the prevention of scab ou«-ht to be founded. We cannot bvit think that heretofore the Provincial Council have been guided by such data, so far as they have been able to get at them. Comparatively few of the members of the Council were conversant with the question ; and to those few the framing of the law was left. We know that at the time of the passing of the present law, it was carefully considered out of dcors by the stockowners, and that some members of the Council entered that House, if we may so speak, entirely "actuated by scab." We know that at a meeting of Stockowners convened notlongagoatChristchurch, for the consideration of the subject, the Stockowners present almost unanimously expressed their satisfaction with the law as it at present stands. Taking these circumstances iiilo consideration, we do not think it. likely that the Provincial Council will fct.'l it. th.-.'ir ('uly to >.:;ukc s'.ny alterations in the l.h::ih (•aii;::;nc-!. Undoubtedly ifc mr.y pr''f--sniO!-(.!K:;i\iiy;»:u!!iiH!<>-orvediy upon individuals, Lui. \va iime the; Lcsiimony, not only of tli-'i majority of our own ytockown.n:, but of Ihosc of (.tie greatest nasfom! country in the Southern IJernipphcre, of the abs-o-lufe necessity of pievenliny scub -m nil hazard of individual hardship. We are

sincerely sorry for a man placed in the position' of our correspondent " Fairplay ;" but with the evidence before us we can only come to one conclusion on the subject ; viz., that it is better that one or two should suffer than that all should be ruined. The question appears to us to be one between the owners of clean flocks on the one hand and scabby flocks on the other. Nothing1 is more natural than that they should hold very different views as to this law. We should be anxious to know what Fairplay's own opinion was when his flocks were all clean. We have heard the owners of clean sheep assert that this province owes the comparative healthiness of its flocks to its Scab law ; while the owners of scabby flocks assert that the whole province will soon be scabbed like Nelson —that it is only a question of time, and that, in the meantime, a few are ruined by a law which will be repealed before long. Where the evidence is so conflicting, we must be guided by the opinion of the majority of the practical men who have expresed their opinions on the subject, and by the fact that, as yet, scab has been repressed in districts where it had broken out before the law was passed. It is notorious that, whereas the whole of the Province of Nelson is scabbed, Canterbury is comparatively clear. In conclusion we would remind the owner of scabby flocks, who may feel the weight of the law without" any fault of his own, that his is not the only case in which the individual must bow to a law established for the benefit of the community. Quarantine laws press with great hardship in individual cases, and shipowners and-masters may lose a great deal by the detention of ships and cargoes in quarantine ; —it is, nevertheless, necessary that they must suffer for the safety of the community. "We do not think that the Captain of the ship which was lately detained in quarantine at Melbourne, did his cause any good by his dogged attempt to revengs himself upon the law which he conceived had injured him.

11l order to obviate any confusion which mightarise from the simultaneous publication of news of different dates, coming by various opportunities, and in irregular order, Aye may again explain what news it is that we are now publishing, the dates and the order of the various arrivals. The last regular mail which had reached us previously was that of May 19th. A short time ago we published, from information which had come by way of Otago, news to May 22nd, and reports of news to June 10th which were suffered to escape by the Captain of the ' Marion' then in quarantine. The 25th of August was the date at which the intelligence was despatched to us from Melbourne. About a week ago, we received per ' Cheetah' to Wellington, and thence per c Phoebe,' Sydney papers to Sept. 16th, which contained news of the arrival of the 'Golden Era' in Melbourne, on the 9fch of September, with the English mail of June 19th. Our portion of that mail came down to us by the same opportunity, and wo also received the details of the news brought by the * Marion' to June 10. A few days afterwards, the ' Zingari' arrived from Wellington', to which place the ' Marmora' had brought intelligence of the arrival in Melbourne of the ' Saldanha,' from England, June sth, and the ' Morning Light,' July the sth, both on the 17th of September. The 'Almora,' an Emigrant ship, had arrived in the meantime, with papers to July 2. No Mail from England of any of these last mentioned dates has come down to-us ; but from the Melbourne papers we are able to gather very compendious accounts of European '"news, which we are now in course of publishing. The news by the ' S-tldn.nha,' though, old, is worth reprinting for the sake of keeping'the narrative complete.