For whom the dog barks

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 564, 29 November 1994, Page 6

For whom the dog barks

• In a perfect world none of us would pay rates and mysteriously RDC contractors would be paving our streets with gold. It's a broken axle short of that. I refer to dog registration fees for us rural folk out in the sticks, who spend a lot of their time saying "well-a-go" whilst posting off rates cheques. The council funding review committee decided fairly that dog registration fees should be broken down and examined by council. This appears to have caused tail-spin in some quarters (or is it turning tail, a bad trait in a huntaway, they should face the sheep). The chief executive officer, Cliff

Houston, gave a clearbreakdown of costs in his published reply to Mrs Wise ( Ruapehu Bulletin - 15 November 1994 ). If rates levels rise as an exponential graph relative to services, then when the RDC contractors graded our nearest road, they should drop off half a ton of caviar at the front gate for good measure. Rural ratepayers also, cannot access (hook in on) glorious services such as sewagedisposalj'dgive* my eye tooth too, in fact I' d give all my teeth. Farmers spend large amounts of their time and money digging labyrinths of tunnels through the front lawn trying to locate some illusive bend in the sewage pipe and then laying enough

of the stuff that end to end would reach to Invercargill. How many town dwellers are involved in this savoury business, getting down and getting dirty? It'sadirty business. Gone are the days of romance blossoming at the dog dosing strip. My school friend's father, Ken Avery, wrote that enduring ballad of love 'At the Dog Dosing Strip at Dunsandel (I First Met My Molly Mallone)'. Now, all this happens at the pri vacy of one' s own home and besides, they're all on the pill (Dronsit that is). That is another expense. ■For farm owners and shepherds alike, this registration fee is a hefty amount of money. For owners on top of considerable general rates but for shepherds who often supplement their income by

rearing and training dogs for sale. This fee is often a disincenti ve to even declare old Bessy at all — she's round behind the woolshed when the control officer appears. Most farmers do not require the services of a dog control officer brandishing a butterfly net. Any dog found without due cause on farmland is quickly reduced to rubble at the end of a smoking gun. So who and what is subsidised by my $500 dog registration fee? Whilst there is sympathy for those who genuinely must finely juggle bills - people with two acres or more are not necessarily waist deep in $100 notes either. Never mind, us farmers will be a thing of the past, dri ven out of the hills by the

predatory demands of the RMA, OSH, Biosecurities Bill, T.B. vectors, C. ovis and dog registration rates, The hills will be left inhabited by large gangs of MAF Regional council hitmen and DoC etc., pegging out esplanade strips and shooting footage of "Dances With Possums " amidst roaming packs of wild dogs too expensive to register. I often consider the Council is a frog in wolFs clothing. They sit on the lawn at night in the wet and screech like hell when approached, then slither off from under your foot just when you think you've got them. Beware the frog tactic. However, I feel they are jumping in the right direction on this matter.

Justine

Adams