MEANEST KIND OF THEFT.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 221, 17 September 1919, Page 9

MEANEST KIND OF THEFT.

STOCK GRAZES ON SOLDIERS' LAND. EATIXG IT BARE. (By Telegraph.—Special to '-Star.") CIIIUSTCri URCH, Tuesday. At the meeting of the Canterbury Land Board to-day, Mr. Haszard (Commissioner) referred to a practice which had given him much concern. When the Government purchased an estate for cutting up for the settlement of soldiers, it was not always possible to have it ready fnr the- ballot as soon as possession was secured. It was found that some people who in an ordinary way would be very much insulted if they were called thieves thought it no shame, as ooon as the ranger's back was turned, to " pile " stock on to the hind and eat it bare. Only the previous evening he had received advice of stock being- put on the Coldstream settlement in this way. "To my mind, - ' said Mr. Haezard, " this is a theft of a very mean and despicable kind. With their multifarious duties it is imposihle for the rangers to be continuously on the watch." He would appeal to the Farmers' Union and the better minded people in a district to consider themselves honorary trustees for the soldier boys, and see that such things did not happen. When he was in ■Southland, the Farmers' Union went a good deal further than that. When a soldier settlement was begun, they would form a working bee, and settlers for miles round would come in with their teams, and spend a day, giving the soldier boys a start. Sometimes as many as fifty teams would be at work at once. After all, one day did not mean much to the well-established farmer, but it did moan a good deal to the -man just starting. Couhl they not do better in Canterbury, where they had the advantage of a genial climate?

A member of the Board remarked that in the early days settlers just starting were helped by ploughing matches being held on their land.