NEW FENCING ACT.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 314, 20 April 1878, Page 4

NEW FENCING ACT.

“Aorxcola” in®the Auckland 'Weekly • News , gives the following summary of the proposed new Fencing Act: It is proposed by the Legislature at its next, session to pass a new Fencing Act, adapted to the circumstances and nccssilies of the entire colony. All existing Provincial Acts and Ordinances numbering about 25, are to .be repealed A copy of the proposed measure very wisely lias been transmitted to chairmen ot Highway Boards, with a circular to the effect that the Government will be glad to receive any suggestions which the experience of the Boards may enable them to offer on the subject. How is the time, ’ therefore, for owners and occupiers of laud to state their minds and to offer practical hints through their respective Boards. This is a matter that concerns each and every one of the thousands of* persons in the colony who may have holdings of land, whether freehold or otherwise. It is a comfort to be assured that our Government do not intend to repeal Provincial Acts without passing a general one. Some years ago, it will boremembered, there was a cry made by certain wiseacres that Fencing Acts should be abolished altogether ; that fencing was an expensive affair, and quite unnecessary; that if settlers wished to keep stock they must keep them entirely on their own farms; that it could not possibly pay to have to put up so much fencing. But in a country of small farms fences are indispensable. Hence a good workable Fencing Act is a necessity, and may prove a great boon to the entire community. The new Act contains 42 clauses. In schedule B descriptions are given of what constitutes a sufficient or legal fence. The descriptions vary considerably for each provincial district. For Auckland there are nine’ kinds mentioned ; Taranaki, 13 ; Hawke’s Bay, 5 ; Kelson, 5 ; Marlborough, 6; Canterbury, 9; Westland, 10; Otago, 19. A legal fence for Auckland may be as follows : 1. A stone wall not less than 4 feet 6 inches in height, exclusive of the coping, and not less than 2 feet G indies width at base. 2. Posts of wood or iron standards not more than 9 feet apart, or not more than 18 met apart with ties or spreaders, with six wires of not less diameter and weight per ton than the wire commonly known as No. 8 wire, or with live of such wires with one rail of wood, or four of such wires with two rails of wood. 3. Posts or iron standards, with ditch and bank, and three wires of similar diameter to that specified under last proceeding clause. 4. A post ami three-rail fence. 5. A post and two-rail fence, with hank and ditch. 6. A bank and brush fence. 5 feet higli in all, and ditch bank to be planted with white-thorn, kangaroo acacia, or Vermont damson, planted not more than 9 inches apart; but tin’s fence shall not bo erected except by mutual consent. 7. A bank faced or topped with stone 5 feet high, with ditch. 8. A double ditch and bank. Tbo bank to be 4 feet G inches wide at base, and to be built of five layers of sods 8 inches each in hoight. On the top of the bank 18 inches of brush as previously specified, or a post and one-rail fence. Post to be at least 5 feel in length, and to be at least 18 inches in height above top of bank. 9. A paling fence, not less than 5 feet high, with posts and two rails. 10. Any other description of fence mutually agreed upon by the parties interested. The general provisions of legal fences are given as follows : 1. Kails shall not be longer than 9 feet, and shall be of good and substantial depth and thickness, and may be of any of the following woods : —Heart of kauri, heart of rimu, tauckaha, totara, manuka, kawaka, kowhai, parin’, rata, black main, pohutukawa, blue or red gain, or stringybark. 2. Posts (unless special measurement given above) shall be at least 7 feet in length, and shall bo of substantial breadth and thickness, and may he of any of the following woods:—Parin', pohutukawa, bine or red gum, iron-bark or stringybark, heart of totara, heart of kauri, kawaka, tanekaha, black main, kowhai, and matai. Clause 5 provides that County Councils shall appoint for ridings or districts competent persons to be inspectors of fences. According to clause?, inspectors before entering on a case in dispute shall appoint a third inspector, who is to be umpire, and whoso award shall decide the matter. By clause 11, any person planting gorse or sweet-briar, without the consent of occupier of adjoining farm, or planting in a road, or public reserve, without consent of proper authorities, shall be guilty of an offence, and may be fined £2O. Provision is made by clause 12 for the occupier of land to construct a fence on a public road as a protection to a live fenece, such fence to bo not more than 5 feet distant fron*boundary, and not to remain longer than six years. Clause 13 is to the effect that owners or occupiers of adjoining lands shall he liable to join in or contribute to the construction of a dividing fence. It is rendered by clause 15 I that a notice to fence should be served any person liable to contribute t<wards its erection. Without such jlotice no liability is incurred.

The 16th danse gives particulars of the mode of service of notice ; likewise the proof of such service. If parties cannot agree, clause 17 provides that fence can bo made by party giving notice, and owner or occupier of adjoining land shall be liable to pay one-half of the original value of such fence. An agreement having been made, and either party neglecting - or failing to perform his part, clause IS provides that the other party may make the fence, and receive from defaulting party one-half the cost. It is provided by clause 20 that persons availing themselves of any fence erected before they acquired their hum, and towards which no previous owner contributed, will have to pay a moiety of the original cost. Clause 24 states that the maximum price to be paid in respect of one-half of the actual cost of erecting any sufficient fence shall not exceed twenty shillings per ch.aim According to clause 30, if the owner or occupier of land bounded by a road shall have erected a fence on his road boundary, and any other person shall avail himself of and use this fence, he shall be liable to pay to the person who erected it interest on half the cost of erecting, at the rate of 10 per cent, as long as ho shall continue to use it. By clause 32, adjoining occupiers are to keep dividing fences in repair, and shall be liable to the cost of doing so in equal proportions.

And then clause 33 gives the particulars of the procedure to bo adopted to compel contribution to the repair of dividing fences. A "week’s notice is to be sufficient, and if not complied with, the other party can repair the fence and demand and recover half the cost. If, however, the fence is destroyed by fire or the falling of a tree, then the party through whose neglect the fire or the trees caused the injury shall be the party bound to repair the entire piece of fence so damaged.

NATIVE AND LAND COUNT. Ax old Native Chief was recently relating Ins experiences of the Native Lands Court, judges, lawyers, land , t! . such like institutions of the pakeha that he had come into contact with. He said he thought at first the Native Land Court was a fine institution, but when he found it giving his laud to people who had not a shadow of claim to it ho altered Ins opinion of the Court. Ho was favorably disposed towards the judges, because he thought they were fair men, dealing out even handed justice. He found out the was mistaken, and between the Courts and the Judjes he rushed into the arms of the lawyers, but he says with emphasis he “ found them the very devil.” The experience of some pakehas might be found to agree in a remarkable manner with the ancient cannibal’s, especially as regards the lawyers.—-Thames Star.

> ——— PHARISEES AND PUBLICANS. In these days of ecclesiastical criticism, when men arc yearning for terseness in pulpit discourses, it is refreshing to hear, now and then, from the sacred desk, utterances at once incisive, crisp, and epigrammatic. Such an instance occurred the other day, not a hundred miles from Parnell. The preacher selected for his theme the parable of “ The Pharisee and the Publican ;” after an exordium on the case of the Publican, who had nothing to say for himself, and for whom nobody else had anything to say, he took the Pharisee in hand. After exhausting the vocabulary of censure upon that historical personage, the rev gentleman remarked “ that there was one redeeming feature in his character, ‘he gave tithes to the church, ‘of all that ho possessed.’ He was afraid, taking that characteristic as a standard, that there were feiv Pharisees in Parnell !”—Auckland Herald . —— - ■ DURABLE TIMBER. The American Chemist says that a western funner discovered many years ago that wood could be made to last longer than iron in the ground. Time and weather, ho says, seem to have no effect on it. The posts can be prepared for less than two cents a piece. This is the recipe ; Take boiled linseed oil'and stir it in pulverised charcoal to the consistency of paint. Put a coat of this over the timber, and he adds, there is not a man who will live to see it rot.

SPECIAL SETTLEMENTS. The Hawke’s Bay Herald says:—We hear that the Secretary of tho Bush Mills Settlement made application to the Government through Mr Rees, a few weeks since, that an Order-in-Cduncil might be issued for the purpose of establishing that settlement on a piece ofland applied for by the secretary, and approved by the Waste Lands Board. Mr Rees received an intimation yesterday morning from Mr Elliott, Uuder-Socre-tary for Lands, that the Government approved of the application, and that the Ordev-in-Couucil would be issued in due. course. Tho establishment of this settlement, therefore, may shortly be looked on as an accomplished fact.

The N.Z. Times says :—The Wellington Trust, Loan, and Investment Company (Limited) paid on Monday, Ist April, the sum of £42,000, being in discharge.of shares taken over from the Wellington Mutual Investment Society (Class No. 2), some,five years ago, theyhavingbe'en fully paid up by monthly instalments of Gs per month. A great portion of this large amount will go to the so-called " working classes,” .who are shareholders, and the putting in circulation such a sum will be productive of benefit,