TAPU.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3475, 13 February 1880, Page 2

TAPU.

(FfiOM A CORRESPONDENT).

Hastings, Feb. 12, 1880.

A most brutal and dastardly act was committed here some time this week, of which I send you the particulars. Mr Hawkes,-about noon yesterday, on going to the back of his fence, saw a beast lying down, and on noticing its peculiar v position—seemingly as if in pain— Smt went for a closer inspection, and from tnr way its hind legs were spread, was sure its back was broken; he, still thinking the beast was alive-, called Mrs Hawkes to see if she knew who it belonged to. - On going closer for the purpose of identification they remarked a gum spear lying alongside the animal. They imme* diately summoned the neighbors, and on handling the beast it was found to be quite dead. It was then turned orer on its back, when they saw that the weapon was driven into the flank, and Mr Jacobs (who has now the spear in his possession) with difficulty withdrew it. To giro some idea of the' monstrous cruelty of the wretch who committed the fiendish deed, it was found to be ins«rted about 18in. in the carcase, and sticking into the back bone or spine. On stripping off the hide a wouud of a similar nature was found on the other side, but. not deep enough to cause death. No one can surmise, the .- object the wretch, had in torturing the poor animal. It was the property of Lowrie Brothers, and. quieter or more unoffensive young men are not in the colony. The loss to the ownewj is about £4. -This is a matter which I am pure the police should see to, and' everjone her* will give their assistance^ to bring the offender to justioe. For the last three month* a sort of black mail bai ,

been levied on the poor cottagers here. One dny a goose is killed, next a pig, then ft hen-roost is robbed, then a bush hut broken into, and everything movable abstracted, often leaving tbe tired men under the necessity' of going to bed supperless, so that gome are afraid to retire at night lesfc they might walte in the morning and find themselves a heap of . cinders—would to God there was an end of such work.

lam happy to inform you that the step 3 the Waste Lands Board have taken in throwing open some land here under the Homestead Act has met the wishes of the Thames people. Scarcely a day passes that we have not some strangers here to view this promised land, and there are more applications than there is land twice over. This shows that tho great aim of the poor working mau is to get a home of his own if t^e term 3 were such that meantime he woUtH see his way to live.