PASSING NOTES.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 170, 4 November 1892, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

[By

Nemesis.]

Some few months back the County Council received a communication calling attention to the sparrow nuisance, and asking their assistance in arranging for concerted action to check the depredations of those creatures. It was replied, if I remember right on the motion of the Chairman that the sparrows had not become a nuisance in this county and such action was not considered necessary. I doubted the correctness of the Council’s decision at the time but held my peace for want of more positive knowledge. Since then I have spoken to several who cultivate gardens and they seem pretty unanimous in their opinions against the sparrows. Seed beds have to be very closely watched or covered to prevent the sparrows from taking the seed, and a great deal of labour and time have been lost by the destructive work of these birds. One person told me that he was compelled to stand by his fowls until they had devoured their food on each occasion or else the sparrows would get the greater share. Looking at the composition of the Council it is perhaps easy to see the difference of opinion. Councillors arc not engaged in gardening or the finer operations of agriculture so possibly are not annoyed by the little birds. The sparrow has had many friends amongst those who are more interested in the destruction of insects than in the saving of seeds but I learn from a contemporary writer that the sparrow is losing friends even among those who maintain that small birds earn their living by diminishing the plague of injurious insects. Miss Gnmerod, who is regarded as the highest authority on entomology, has addressed a letter to Lord Catlicart in which she declares that she is unequivocally in favour of " ;■ . ■ parrow .-dribs. Her advio • , readily accepted. The sparrow is, to her personal knowledge, a causa of fearful loss in country districts,

whatever it may be in towns. It not only robs the cornfields, but drives away the swallows and the soft-billed birds, which are really the most efficient in keeping within narrow limits the ravages of insects. Section 22, Whakahara, is becoming quite chronic with our Councillors and we apparently have not yet heard the last of it. Mr Slater, having no road in this particular locality for the taking out of his timber, has been drawing across this section. A lady at Whakahara, the reputed owner of the section, complained and demanded payment for right-of-way. This I understand has been paid for some years by Mr Slater, but as the demands got higher and higher each year till they reached to £2O or £25 the strain became too great and Mr Slater applied to the County Council asking them to take over the road and free him from blackmail. He promised at the same time that if this were done he would contribute the sum of £lO. The Council agreed and claiming to have dono all that was asked of them, now demand the sum of £lO from Mr Slater. The latter gentleman refuses to pay saying that he was not freed from blackmail, nor did the Council perform what they undertook to do. I do not presume to judge between the parties but it appears that the Council have been informed that they have no case at law and so fear to push on in that direction. In a spirit of magnanimity the Council at last meeting decided to inform the lady at Whakahara that Mr Slater had not performed his promises ; this I suppose was meant more as a request that the lady should again resort to the practice of blackmailing Mr Slater, for I can see no other object in specially informing that lady. This action struck me as very childish and despicable and quite unworthy of a public body. By all means let the Council stick up for their rights but when they find themselves check mated and unable to enforce them against opposition let them give way with a good grace and not attempt to get at Mr Slater by back influences which will in no way assist them in getting what they consider their rights. There is just a probability that the most interesting part of this Section 22 episode has yet to come. Mr Slater has paid several pounds to a certain lady as the owner of the section for the right to cross the same, but the attempts made by the Council to procure a deed of title to the road seem to have established as a fact that the lady in question has never been the owner of the section. If this be so it seems to me that the blackmail demanded has been obtained under false pretences and I hear that a demand for refund will probably be made. It seems to me that the Council are playing a losing game and that Mr Slater holds all the trumps.