STACK BURNING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3100, 28 May 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

STACK BURNING.

Tiie farmer lias a great many adverse and unforeseen forces to contend against, but none so remorseless, so insidious and destructive as the midnierht stack-burner. He may, of course, suffer from the violence of tlie elements while his crops are still in the ground ; but injury from this source is as old as the world, and he submits to it with the best grace he can, as something 1 that cannot bo averted, that is beyond and above the resources of man to cop" with, find not improbably he consoles himself with the reflection that though the elements deal harshly with him in one season they may make generous amends during many subsequent ones. But the miscreant who comes under the cover of night, and in an instant destroys the fruits of many long days' weary labour, and the burden of many nights, hopeful or anxious thoughts—from hiin he can never expect compensation or solatium in any shape whatever. When the circumstances of a farmer who has been made the victim of a foul crime of this kind ia considered, one feels as if in the rough-and-ready methods of lynch law alone could wo find deterrent and fitting punishment for such an offence. But it so happens that lynch law is as powerless to deal* with it as the established law of the land. liven early as it is in the season, we notice that the fire fiend has been at his shocking work in different parts of the country, and, as usual,without leaving any trace or evidence behind that would lead, not only to the punishment of the crime, but actually to furnish oven the ghost of a reason for its perpetration. But tho fact is that the whole ®f these stack fires, it might almost 1 be said, that are the work of the incendiary are carried ont without any personal motive or design, oxcept that of pure devilry and for the mere pleasure of gratifying criminal instincts. There was a time in the colony when there was very little crime perpetrated and certaiuly none of tbis species. But that was before the inauguration of the Public Works policy, before the workhouses and tho street corners and festering slums of the great citieß at Home had been beaten up and cleaned out for a population for this colony. It is from among these human direlicts, who are still found drifting around tho country, that tho stickburning brigade is recruited. Men of this kind are a libel on humanity ; thej' can have no moral perceptions or next to none, and must bo inn.kpible of appreciating anything thut does not appeal to their feelings—to their hide and cause physical pain, protracted and long drawn out. Not only the farmer and the insurance company but humanity generally are losers when food, the good gifts of u beneficent Creator, are destroyed in this manner. The offence, therefore, is one not against an individual but against the community ; and its suppression is the duty and the business of every man. And this, too, applies not merely to the wretch who burns and destroys through sheer force of a oriminal and degraded nature, or the others who do so from a motive of vindictiveness or with tho object of fraud. The only protection to tho farmor at this season is to adopt the precaution of insuring his stacks, though it is sad to reflect that this means of protection is sometimes a temptation to fraud, and leads a dishonest farmer hero and there into the committal of a crime that is, wo are afraid, not always regarded with the seriousness and abhorrence that its criminal character deserves. —Tuapeka Times.