The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1881.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 897, 12 October 1881, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1881.

The Dog Regulation Amendment Act of the late seasion simply fixes five shillings as the minimum fee for registering dogs and ten shillings as the maximum, Sheep, cattle, and rabbit dogs are exempted from these fees, the local authority having the power to reduce tho amount paid for their registration to such a sum as thay may determine. The object of this exemption is evidently that the fee on dogs kept for service in the fields should only cover the cost of registration. The Wairarapa West County has taken this view of the quostion, and has resolved, in giving effect to the Act in this district, not to make any revenue out of fees beyond the cost of collars and such an additional expense as may be necessary to pay a Registration officer, It is estimated that a shilling, or a little more, will defray the expense of collar and registration on each dog, Tn Masterton the fee of registration is ten shillings, consequently the Borough Council make a profit of about nine shillings on each animal registered, If all the dogs in the town were registered the money mado out of them would amount to a very considerable sum, but the largeness of the fee leads to the payment in a great many instances being evaded, and the result probably is a very inequitable arrangement, viz., that half the dogs are unregistered. We trust the Council will next year reduce the fee to five shillings. It will then make four hundred per cent in dog registration, which may be regarded, as times go, a fair profit. It is not, in our opinion, a wise policy to attempt in a small town like Masterton to make too much plunder out of peaceful citizens who may choose to keep a small watch dog. The registration of dogs in town and country is in itself a right and proper thing. It identifies every animal with its owner, and when a cur does mischief it gives the person injured a legal remedy for any loss he may sustain. It also prevents an unnecessary multiplication of mongrels, While we recognize the advantage of registration, we fail to see the benefit of man's four-footed friend being made to contribute to the general revenue. By the amendment made in the Act of 1881, it is obvious that the Government and Parliament admit the unworkable and unreasonable character of the measure as at first framed, The amendments now made are i great improvement, as to a great extent they will lead up to general registration for all dogs, and they also give power, in certain classes of dogs, to fix fees which will simply cover the cost of registration. Had the AGt extended this privilege to all clauses of dogs the measure would hare been fairly perfect and equitable.