STRAY STOCK ON ROADS

Taupo Times, Volume IV, Issue 177, 17 June 1955, Page 4

STRAY STOCK ON ROADS

As reported in last week's Taupo Times steps are being taken by the Taupo County Commissioner and the Taupo Borough Council to get rid of the menace of wandering stock on the roads of the district. One of the difficulties to be faced in connection with the problem is the fact that most owners of straying. horses and cattle do not appear to realise the deadly menace to human life constituted by their presence on roads used by modern motor traffic. Obviously, if owners will not take note of the reality of this danger they must be compelled to do so. It is to be hoped, however, that the majority of owners will co-operate with the authorities in their efforts. Since the present Impounding Act was enacted by Parliament the change-over from the horse-and-buggy era to that of the motor-car has completely altefed the situation with regard : to stock on roads. Today the horse, in many districts, including this one, is in 90 per cent of cases, not a major means of trans- ; port for essential purposes, but merely an amenity for purposes j of sport or recreation. Even if this were not so, however, it j would still be correct to say that the use of the roads by modern : motor traffic is so widespread as to throw on stock owners a moral duty to keep their stock off the roads in the interests of : human safety. j Whatever the , present legal position may be, horses and J cattle wandering on roads used practically entirely by motor | traffic create a danger to human life that throws a serious moral | obligation on their owners. The bill now before Parliament, 1 which will bring the impounding legislation more into line with | present-day circumstances, will do something to make this moral \ obligation a legal one. But the danger existing on roads in this J district is such that it calls for measures to be taken now and not J in a year's time. . § Not so long ago a small car on the Waitaharfii Flat ran into | a cattle beast that stepped suddenly on to the road from the J scrub. Thec ar was overturned and its two occupants, suffering | scrub. The car was overturned and its two occupants, sufferingl motorists. The police made exhaustive inquiries but no ownerj of the animal could be satisfactorily identified. A similar inci-f dent last summer wrecked the front of a large car. In the bor-i ough, near the golf links, a car collided at night with a horse that | came suddenly out of the scrub, and the driver had to be rushed J to a doctor with severe facial cuts. These incidents show clearly how deadly the menace in® question is, and make it plain that the fact that no fatal accident J has yet resulted does not entitle us to regard the position^ § anything but serious. In addition to the danger to human life;| there is the less serious, but far from unimportant, matter of J the damage done, in areas such as the borough, to gardens and! residential properties by wandering stock. 1 The campaign to remove stray animals from the roads willj have the support of the general public. The position today is J -that the owner of stock has no moral right whatever to allow - 1 them to wander at large. If he cannot provide them with a 1 securely fenced area in which to graze he should get rid of them.lj