CATTLE TRESPASS.

Southland Times, Issue 1058, 18 November 1868, Page 3

CATTLE TRESPASS.

(to the editor of the southland times.) Sik— l iiiwe been rather amused — although the matter has become somew'.wxt u;o serious for a jo'ce — at the raid m.iu.e upon the cattle of W-.& lieges by the conservators of the public peace. One would suppose from the zeal of our civil functionaries in this particular department, that border trespass is, in their eyes, a crime of the deepest moral turpitude. Yet the gleaming twinkle of the eye, as victim after victim tables the coin, raises a suspicion of " the more the merrier." No doubt our chief must be well satisfied with yesterday's work. What are a few paltry shillings, and J what the struggles of the widow with a family to meet hard times, compared with the necessity of keeping clear our overcrowded thoroughfares, or promoting the growth of grass on the outskirts. I am not a victim to this over-vigilance — this unnecessary semblance of activity — and consequently do not write feelingly ; but this petty warfare will do more than anything else to sink the place into utter contempt. "What ! have the police nothing to do but to pounce on every stray goat, horse, or cow, in places where perhaps not more than half-a-dozen persons pas, and repass in a day. If so, diminish, or do away with the force, but pray don't raise or supplement their salaries by cruel .fines wrung from the orphan and widow. The whole thing is mean ; that a body of able and disciplined men should be suifered to occupy themselves in such a way. There are, as everyone knows, only three streets in the town in which, a score of horses or catttle could do any mischief. Let animals straying therein be impounded — • the impounding fee is in these cases sufficient. To apply the rule to such places as Leet-street, Grala-street, the Town Belt, or the wilderness surrounding the Custom House, where scarcely anyone ever goes, even by chance, is just saying, " It's the money we want, and that, by hook or bv crook, we will have. — I am, Sir, your's, &c, Resident. Invercargill, 17th Nov., 1868.