CATTLE THIEVES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 82, 3 October 1929, Page 25

CATTLE THIEVES

The lines of "Banjo" Patterson are recalled by a true story of life in the backblocks of Australia which was tola to an "Auckland Star" reporter recently by Lord Luke of Pavenham, a passenger on the Aorangi. Lord' Luke is head of a great; firm of'meat extract producers, which has a "farm" of 11,000 square miles in the Northern Territory. There are. oyer-130,000 cattle on, the farm, which is known as the Tie T toria Downs estate. With such a farm —as big as niany countries^-it is naturally al difficult job to keep check on the stock and the depredations of cattle thieves are by no means unknown.

Towards the ena of last year the manager of the estate, Mr. James Martin, learnea that thieves haa earriea off a big mob of calves, all unbranded. The leader of the robbers;was a,white man, and ho had. three confederates, either half or quarter-caste aboriginals. Mr. Martin wasted no.time, ana, with four black trackers,■";he- set 'out in pursuit, following the-th;ovea for five days, halting by the same waterholes and river courses as the others had occupied each stage earlier. They reached a' station on the banks of the Daly River, and

then discovered that the calves haa all been branaea, ana were, therefore, "within the law"; that is to say, their ownership couia not be disputed Fortunately, said Lord Luke, a cow haa followed one of the calves the whole distance, and, as she was not branded, it was possible ior a charge of theft to be made and to be upheld. Meanwhile the thieves had got away with their cheque's from the receiver, a wealthy land owner^Mr. Martin knew Jhat the cheques could; not be cashea until the nearest settlement was reached. He promptly.made tracks,in that direction, ana a long ana arauous journey ended; in victory, for the thieves arrived withthe cheque from.the man suspected, and he, as well as the half-caste thieves, was brought to justice. The leader: of the gang escaped. , A curious feature of the long pursuit over the trackless wilds was that when Mr. Martin started out with his faithful black trackers he accidentally, omittea to strap his "gun" round his waist. He knew the thieves were armed, and so aia the trackers, but they aia not know: that Mr." Martin haa not brought his revolver with them.. When they aia fina out they "had the yrind up," and it was with the utmost Idifficulty that Mr. Martin was able to:persuade them to carry on with the chase.