OBSTRUCTION BY SHEEP.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18348, 3 April 1925, Page 5

OBSTRUCTION BY SHEEP.

MOTORISTS' COMPLAINT. OTHER SIDE OF THE CASE. Many a motorist has liad occasion to complain of the attitude taken up by sheep drovers on country roads, as a result ot which cars are ol't«n held up for quite a lug time. Such a case came under the notice of "Roadster'' on a recent afternoon. At this time of the year if. is customary to meet flocks of sheep on the road and on the afternoon in question several flocks were passed on the road between Ashburton and Christchurch, via the Rakaia bridge and Lincoln. The first trouble was experienced on the bridge, where a mob of several hundred sheep completely blocked the flow of traffic proceeding directly against them. In order to get past it was necessary for the three occupants of the car each to carry sevoral sheep ahead ol the flock with a view to making the others follow. As sheep have a habit of running back, quite a long time elapse] before the bridge was able to be traversed by the car. No blame was attachable to the drovers in this instance, but some distance further on the car was held uv> on tw« occasions by sheep. On these occasions, however, the driver of the car, who lias been using the provincial roads for years, considered that the drovers were guilty of obstructionist tactics in that they could easily have got their dogs out to put the sheep on one side of the road long before the car, whose approach could be detected on the straight stretch of road arrived on the scene, and instead, the drovers ignored tl'.o car until the drive?- remonstrated with them for their tardiness. It certainly seemed to "Roadster" that the drovers were at fault in acting as they did, but there are two sides to every question, and after heaiino- the other side "Roadster" had to admit there was quite a lot to be said for the drover. A motorist who is also-a farmer, stated that in most of the eases where drovers held up cars in the manner described. it would be found that they had incurred losses of stock or of dogs through unthinking motorists. "You will find," he said, "that in a good manv cases when a drover pulls his sheep over to one side of the road in order to allow a motorist to pass, the motorist will think nothing of running over a dog. Ther seem to think that if the dog does not get out of the way of the car it is its own fault, if disaster, in the shape of a car running it down, should overtake it, forgetting that when a well-trained Animal is watching the sheep, it is turning to one side of the road, it is unable to see ft vehicle approaching, its devotion to duty being thus the cause of its untimely end. It is for this reason that drovers do not now .show, the regard for motorists in this respect that they .used to show."

lu view of the circumstances quoted the drovers certainly appear to have a legitimate reason, for acting; as described, for it is no joke from a drover's point of view to lose a good <log, which has taken a long time to train, by the action of a thoughtless motorist.'

STOCK DAMAGES ROADS.

CRITICISM BY MOTORISTS. The matter of live stock using main roads when side roads are available has been a grievance for some time among motorists, because of the damage thus done to road surfaces, and the South Island Motor Union recently addressed a letter to the Xew Zealand Counties' Association on the subject. At last night's meeting of the Union a reply was received stating that so far as it was known it was the usual practice of stock-owners and drovers to use any grassy and little-frc'quentod roads in. the counties in preference to main or even metalled roads, in order to avoid the risk of damage to stock by vehicular traffic, and also to avoid foot soreness. As each Borough Council, County Council, or other local body under its own by-laws controlled the traffic in its own district only, and as the conditions necessarily varied in each district even if contiguous, it seemed to be a matter for the various local bodies only, and hardly came within the scope of the Association, which denlt only with counties, and was not functioned to interfere with or determine the administration of the bylaws of each autonomous local body, as such administration was a matter coming entirely within the jurisdiction of each local body only. Mr W. IT. Nicholson: "Any owner of stock who studies his stock would not think of taking it down a highway if there is a side road nearby."

The chairman (Mr B-. W. Jlawkes): "A drover often -.rants a drink, and makes it his business to go past a hotel."

Mr Nicholson: "I do not think that thev do it very much." He added that the' Union had never suggested that sheep should be absolutely prohibited from using main roads, but that they should not use them when side roads ■were available. The chairman stated that he thought it a pity that sheep which could easily be brought along a side road should use a portion of a. main road, and cause it to be damaged. - The letter was received.

The United States operates SO per rent, of the worlds motor-cars and produces 80 per cent. Last yeaT-IJ-* -221 000 cars and trucks were shipped from the United States to toreign lands One hundred and six thousand Ameiuan cars were assembled abroad. The rest of the world built 500.000 cars aim exported 70.000 cars, during 1.24. it is now difficult to point out a country anvwhere where automobiles are iu>i used The motor-car has become, tne world over, the .accepted means or transportation.

In 1899, when the Government took a census of manufacturers in the United States, they found that there were 57 firms producing motor vehicles, employing .a little aver 2000 People, with an investment ol nearly o.OOOWUU dollars, and producing valued at approximately o,oW,uuu dollars.

At the end of twenty years this industry has grown to 23.' manufacturers, employing over 300,000 people jnth an invested capital of over 1.r.00,000 - COO. and producing automobiles valued at 2.000,000,000 dollars, it is now the third largest industry in the United States, oiiid the largest in ihe world manufacturing a finished product.