OLD MICK'S LUCK

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 203, 28 August 1934, Page 9

OLD MICK'S LUCK

GOOD HOME FOR HORSE,

Old Mick will not spend hie declining years hauling ton loads across boggy farm land or up gruelling slopeß, nor will he get sore legs ' again plodding along concrete roads. He is in a good home at Papatoetoe, standing about most of the time watching another score of . horses working, and occacional'y hauling a eledge of supplies across level fields.

So the fears of Mick's well-wishers, including the practical-minded one who sent a cheque for £1 to the One Tre.Hill Borough Council, may be diverted to other causes for concern.

■ In view of the number of letters thar, appeared in the "Star" since the pruvioue meeting of the council when the decision to dispose of the horse was made public, the town clerk, Mr. A. Leese, reported to last night's meeting that the purchaser of the animal had {riven it a good home. Some care had been taken by the borough foreman to ensure that that would be so, and an offer of £8 10/ was declined in favour of one for £5, as it was certain that the farmer who made the lower'offer would. ..not give the horse any work which might prove too arduous.

The horse had been in the council'.* employ for 12 years, and was six years old when purchased. He is sound and healthy, but is unfitted for work on hard roads.

Tho. Mayor, Mr. I. J. GoldstiHe, Was telephoned at 6.30 o'clock in the .morning after the deal had been published, and was asked to be sure that the council was not being unkind in eelling Mick instead of having him killed. Since then the Mayor and council, have been inundated with letters on the question. .The only communication not anonymous was one with which the writer enclosed a cheque towards the expense of put'ehasd for the lethal chamber.

"I heartily endorse the action of the council in coining to the decision it did, ,, said the Mayor, "because I have, found myself that the horse has been given, a home which the council could never have bettered."