THE CATTLE AND THE STREETS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2182, 3 July 1886, Page 3

THE CATTLE AND THE STREETS.

TO THE KDITOU. Sir,— Tho question whether cattle shall bo allowed to tun at large in the borough must be settled one way or the other. On the one hand, the wandering cattle are an unmistakable nuisance ; on the other, some injustice and not a little hardship would be inflicted if they were peremptory excluded from the borough roads. The loss of thiir cow would be a se\ ere blow to many a family. When the Waikato townships were laid out town belts were provided as commonage for the settlers located on their town acres. The Waikato military townships have now become commercial centres of population, and under the altered circumstances it has been found advisable to vest these town belts in domain boards and to fence and lease them in allotments to individuals. The people, depmed of the chief portion of their commonage, have had to fall back on the public roads and unfenced unoccupied acres. One section of tho ratepayers asks, for obvious reasons, that the mobs of halfstarved cattle wandering in our streets shall be removed ; another section protests against this course, as being harsh and unjust. It there no middle course? I believe there is. Cattle must be allowed at times upon the borough roads, or we shall find, as they did at Cambridge, the grass growing on the roads a greater nuisance oven than the cattle. Why not, then, allow cattle to run at large under certain conditions ; that no ratepayer shall run more than a certain number, aud that these shall be cows and horses only — say two cows and one horse for each ratepayer ; that the animals shall bo registered with brands, marks, &c, described ; that they shall run at large on the public streets only between sunrise and sunset j that the borough shall provide reserves fenced in and grassed, say two on each side of the river of about 20 acres each, into which the cattle, cows only, shall be driven before sunset by the owners, and be taken away by them after sunrise. A fee, of not more than sixpence per head per week, might be charged for the use of these night paddocks, which with the poundage fees obtained by a ranger would form a fund out of which to pay that officer's salary. The ducy of this ranger should bo to impound all unregistered stock found by day, and all stock of whatevor kind, registered or not, found by night on the streets and roads of the borough. If some such plan as this were adopted, the working: man and those unable to secure paddocks would not bo deprived of their cow. People who now make a business of running twenty to thirty head of cattle on our streets would be dm en to use their own land, and tho feed thus left for ratepayers, who ran their one or two cows each, would be of far more value than it now is ; while the danger to gardens and orchards from piedatory cattle and horses would be reduced to a minimum. — I am, yours faithfully. " Fredk. .T. Yon Stunner. East Hamilton, June 30th, 18SG.