CORRESPONDENCE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 279, 11 July 1874, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

W» dp not hold ourselves in. any way responsible for the opinions and sentiments elpressed by Correspondent's. All communications must be accompanied by the correct name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

OUK OFFENSIVE LOCAL OF ;■ \.;; LAST WEEK. : \ 7 .: y ' [LiSt' Jrdek • our paper bristled with impounding notices. On Monday, in one. instance, the threat was carried out. Stray hones' and cattle /were mustered on the Mount Ida Pastoral Company's run, ten , horses being taken to the Eweburn' Station 'yj»rds for the night, to go on through Hyde tp, Macraes Pound the next day. The owners appeared not,tq be very anxious in the matter preferring to release-their animals through the poundkeeper in the usual way rather than accept the manager's terms. Of course a pastoral tenant—and the company is.merely a pastoral tenant—has a perfect right to protect the grass he pays a rent for, and can quite legitimately impound trespassing stock. In thircase we hardly think the managar acted wisely in pouncing on ten liorses, the owners of whom,do their bett to keep them near the town. Horses that are used legitimately for business and packing purposes might very well'have been left undisturbed. At any rate the abuse has not been very great, considering that every township must employ a number of horses, and that Naseby existed long before the Mount Ida Pastoral Company, ana therefore the liability of the run to have to graze a certain amount of stock was well known at the time of sale, and, no doubt, affected tho price. The position seems more to be, from the manager's point of view:. You people are agitatiLg for land that you do not want— that is not good for you. You cry to me' for more liberty. My predecessor scourged you with whips, but I will scourge with scorpions. The Company, at their outset, proposed to be intending benefactors of the whole people. We even hear officially that the whole of the Eweburn and Eden Creek runs

belong to the people i-f Naseby. Keally, if this impounding continues, as threatened, it will be almost believed that the interests of the Company and those of the people of Naseby, though both bona Jide, are not quite one and the same thing—& fact that we long «gO veptured to hint. The pharges claimed on the horses by the manngei are, wo learn, £6 ; which, with fees, &c, will come to about 13s. a head. An intended raid over every part of the run is rumored —.. ith »hut truth we do not know—for neit week.]

(To the. Editor of the Morsx Ida Chuoniclb.) Sib, —I observe a lengthened local in your issue of lust week, in re my impounding horses the other day. , Believing that Jpu have been misinformed—aa I can ardly think you would publish untruths, as some of your statements are—l would feel greatly obliged if you would insert this letter in your issue of this week, to show the other aide of the question. You think I acted u'nwisply in pouncing on ten horses kept for packing and business purposes, and whose owners try to keep them near Naaeby. ftpw, the fact is, said horses were taken from a part of one of the Ew«burn paddocks, and, wjth the exception of two, had been. there .for ,a long time, and not in use for months. Some three or four of them were young and unbroken, and could never have been used in business. At any rate, they were on forbidden ground, and I mustered them to the Plough Inn, where I asked owners of stock to meet me, which they did, but would hardly claim their horses ; and one pnrty even dared me to send his to pound. I had, therefore, no alternative but to send them. Your local also shows a bitterness existing in your mind against the Pastoral Company, as if it were an enemy to the commonwealth. I enn imagine some reason for your holding and expressing different views from those held by the promoters of tho Compnnr while there was but an attempt to Jloi t it; but now that it has been successfu ly floated, and become a reality, one would think that all

differences of opinion would be sunk in oblivion. Such consuinuialioi:, however, is too much to expect where narrowmindedness prevails. Your paper of last week shows that a bitterness still exists—a bitterness, remember, against a large section of your townsmen—patronsrand constituents.

From your point of view the Company are taking unusual and severe measures against the people for their stock—whereas nothing of the sort is the case. My only instructions from the Company in these matters are to act in the same manner as I did before thpre was any Company : and this I am, and intend to continue,: doing. I had uo occasion to send any stock to pound during the three years I managed in. Mr. Maitland's absence, because, whenever I mustered all stock were claimed, damages paid, and parties tried to keep their stock within the boundaries pointed out to them; but now there are a few, who are no doubt sorry they did not take shares in our Company, that would like to see the Eweburn run broken up. There is, however, no chance of this, and the best plan for those wouldbe squabblers is to form another Company, and buy, up another run. . JFrbm time to time, for years, an advertisement has been inserted in the 'Mount Ida Chronicle,' that neither horses nor cattle were allowed to run on that part of the Eweburn Statipn which is fenced into paddocks. The nearest fence of these paddocks is four miles from Naseby, so parties can run their stock anywhere within four miles of the township oh Eweburn run, and I understand that the Messrs. Sanders, also allow them to run oyer a, similar sized area on the Kyeburn side of the township \ but of course parties cannot be allowed ,to run unlimited numbers. Dairymen may keep thirty head each, ; by paying an equivalent for their grazing; aud other parties inay keep two or three 'hca'd each for milk.and any necessary horses free These are not hard terms, and„so far as I know, the most of the people prefer them to any .commonage they'might.get on Maniototo, where there is so little food for great cattle., ■ :•■'■' ! •,■ -<•■••■ ,- -■ ; •••■ ■:; ,•;;>■:.•- ~; 1 As for the rest of your famous local, in re whips and scorpions, we may pass it over as so filling-:up, not ivbrth the paper, it-is printed on.—l am, Sec, ' ■" ■"■" ■■''•• ■■'■""• ■"•'' ; - : : --r-^.:-> - : '' ■ '- ■'■'■ A '6fioi Oliveb. '■• [The ten horses were owned as follows: —John Bull, two broken; Mrs. Gogarty, four broken ;. J. TV. Miller, one broken ; M'Carthy, one broken; J. Packman, one broken; A. Pearson, one unbroken. We hope in future communications Mr. Oliver will consider our spac«- a little more, as printer's ink and time is limited—as also their patience. In this case the admission at last made by Mr. Oliver that the Eweburn run stands on exactly the same footing as it did when Owned entirely by Mr. Maitland, and is' Under exactly the same mode of management, is so important (as entirely refuting Mr. M'Kerrow's statement that the Eweburn and Eden Creek runs belong to the people of Naseby, that we do not in this case grudge the space: .'Which 1 is taken up.-Ed. M.I.C.]