THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1872.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 176, 19 July 1872, Page 4

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1872.

We are frequently asked on all hands if something cannot be done to mitigate the annoyance to which the carriers are subjected by ths action taken by the police, in summoning to Court all those whose horses are found wan-, dering about and in the neighborhood of the town. There is no doubt that these night marauders are a very great nuisance to. the occupiers of holdings, whose fences are in consequence not unfrequently .levelled in. places to the ground. Still, in such cases the person whose fence has been injured, or whose crop has been destroyed, is sufficiently protected by the law, which enables him to recover damage against the owuers of the offending horses. Now, it must be evident that some effort should be made to do justice to, and as far as possible, the convenience of a hard-working body of men, upon whom, at all times," and at all seasons, and under all circumstances, this place is dependent as well for the necessaries as. for the luxuries of life. It does, therefore, appea.r hard that they should be subjected to unnecessary hardships, such as that at present complained of, when, .as we -havp before stated, they are amenable to the law for auy damage done by their horses while at large. It mi>st be obvious to all that. there are times when it is matter of impossibility for carriers to deliver their loading and leave the town the same night, and put such distance between their camping ground and the town as would render the return of the horses to their old camping ground impossible. It is a wellknown fact that all.animals, more especially horses, will return to the jplaces whereat they ..ha.ve been con-" fed. In no other .part, or have, we are informed, the police taken the-action in this mattei v -which they have done here. In fact, there seems with, some people a desire' to keep this place back by throwing every possible impediment in the way of its advance, rather than push it ahead by offering every possible inducement to energy, enterprise, and some that, in order to keep the carriers from the fear, or rather'the certainty, of being summoned by the police for allowing their horses to stray,- a camping ground might be formed in Home Gully! .We fear, however, for.the reason", stated, that such a plan would not prevent the horses visiting . the I town as heretofore.

It was only'the'other day that a number of wagrrons drawn by a great many horses passed through this town late in the' evening, en route to l)unstan and Queenstown, having,: no doubt, come to the same conclusion as we ourselves have long since done, that the road via this place is the best,, and the one which will eventually supersede old Dunstan road—more particularly alter the- completion of the iloundbum Hill deviation. Now, in consequence of the recent action taken by the police in the matter of stray horses, the whole of these waggons

went through the town without: stop-' ping—though the drivers were, we are informed, very-:desirous of doing so ■ and thus it resulted that, instead of any good accruing, to the town from the up-country traffic, we had the an-' noyance'of seeing our roads cut up for nothing,, and this from no other reason than the one -to which we have above alluded. The question then is, cannot something he done in this matter, and what that something is ? As we have stated, we do not for a moment believe that the establishment of camping grounds in the immediate vicinity of the town would have the effect of keeping the horses from it, while it must be admitted that the reaching of such grounds without staying a night in town would be at some times impracticable. We,.for our part, while admitting .the , nuisance to be a nuisance, cannot see why greater severity should be by the police here in this matter than is done in-other, up-country Groldfields towns. The power of recovery for damage done appears to be thought sufficient else-where-—why should it not be so here ? We have thought that a well-fenced paddock, with a large number of stalls to be let at a low rate per night, might not only meet the difficulty, but at the same time prove'a remunerative specu r lation. Seeing, however, the expense of obtaining fencing materials in this place, it is possible stalls alone would suffice. ' Something should be done, and done at once, or it is evident that not only, shall we lose any advantage which increased- traffic would give us, but, if we continue to treat the carriers in the manner in which they have been lately treated, we shall find nc waggoners willing to bring their teams .here if they can possibly get loading elsewhere^—a* consequent speedy result necessarily' being an increased charge f>r freight.