SHEEP INSPECTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1371, 14 April 1881, Page 3

SHEEP INSPECTION.

t6 the edmob: ' ' Sir, —l would not have troubled, you again on this matter but for the remark, "tried to bully," made use of in the latter part of Mr Sharp's letter, published in your journal of the 11th instant. The other remarks made use of I consider beneath my notice. lam not aware' that I ever bullied him, or attempted to do so. When the Inspector came to my farm, I was busy sinking a well, and very anxious to get it finished the same afternoon, so answered, if ife did not matter to him, Iwould much rather that he called again any other day, which he agreed to do. '1 then said my sheep were the same as my neighbour's, viz., lousy. He appeared surprised at the remark, and said, "You must mean ticks." Some conversation took place as to poverty, &c., being the cause. The conversation appeared to me to be witlxout unpleasantness on either side. I said, '' Well, these sheep are not suffering from poverty," pointing to seven rams close to where we were standing. I asked him to point either of them out, and that I would catch it and show him lice, which I did. I certainly made use of one remark perhaps I should have left unsaid. I offered to bet him that nearly" every flock in the district that had not been dipped were infected with lice. Neither am I aware, on the second o"r last visit, of there being any unpleasantness ; and in proof of this, as the Inspector" was leaving me, in answer to a question, I' mentioned the names of persons owning sheep around me for his information; which surely I should not have been' asked to do had there been any un-' pleasantness between us. Sir, lam still prepared to prove the truth of the remarks I made use of in my letter, and published by you, "That flocks passed as clean were, and are, infected with the same insect as my flock ;" and my complaint is still, why are other owners not treated similarly to me ? —I am, &c, A. A. Fantham. Gwynneland, Cambridge, April 12th, 1881.