SHEEP STEALING

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26120, 24 May 1950, Page 6

SHEEP STEALING

FARMER’S ALLEGATION

STATEMENTS “ GROSSLY EXAGGERATED”

From Our Own Reporter TIMARU, May 22. “The statements are grossly exag-, gerated,” said Inspector J. G. Payne, of the Timaru Police District, commenting to-day on allegations that! sheep stealing was going on in North ■ Otago and South Canterbury involving ■ “not a few sheep, but extend ng into thousands,” made at the recent annual meeting of the meat and wool section of North Otago Federated Farmers. The allegations were made by Mr J. C. H. Chapman, a sheepowner, of Kurow. Mr Chapman said that five stations in his neighbourhood had lost about 1000 sheep and another station was hundreds short every year. A further station had lost 800 sheep two years ago, and this year it was 1000 wethers short. He mentioned other cases where stations in the Hakataramea Valley and districts towards Waimate had lost numbers of sheep. “They are not going in tens or twenties, they are going in hundreds and, on some stations, in thousands,” said Mr Chapman. “When mobs of sheep go missing they must go somewhere, and the time has come when farmers should cease being quiet about the matter.” He suggested that Federated Farmers should form a fund, based cn the number of sheep a farmer owned, from which rewards could be paid to anyone giving information about stolen sheep. “The thieves seem to be getting bolder, and the only way to stop them is to offer rewards sufficiently high to encourage farmers to keep a look-out for stolen sheep.” The police would welcome any information Federated Farmers could give, said Mr Chapman. The chairman (Mr W. Doig) said he did not know that the position had become. so serious, and he offered to interview the chairman of the Stock and Station Agents’ Association and report to the next meeting of the federation. “I have been here two years, and during that time only three complaints of sheep stealing have been received,” said Inspector Payne in a statement at Timaru to-day. The Timaru Police District extended to Hampden, 22 miles south of Oamaru. “All complaints have been cleared up by the police and I am pleased to say that, apart from one or two minor cases. South I Canterbury is extremely free. Mr Chapman’s statement that thousands of sheen are being .stolen seems to be hardly possible. If. as ho states, thousands of sheep have been stolen, then we have not been told about it. Sheep farmers would certainly report large losses. Often sheep wander off stations unnoticed. The remedy is it) the hands of the individual farmer. If he goes to a little trouble the matter can bo usually cleared up. It is an extremely difficult business to prove a charge of sheep stealing. The thieves have to be caught in the act with the sheep in their possession,” he said. It was possible that the complaints were genuine and. if so, they would be fully investigated by the police. Inqiiiri : I were being made concerning Mr Chapman’s allegations, said Inspector Payne Mr Chapman’s Reply

“The figures were given to me by some of the owners of the stolon sheep and I w'as fully authorised to bring the quantities of losses before the meat and wool section of North Otago Federated Farmers,” said Mr Chapman. commenting on Inspector Payne’s statement to-day. “A number of owners have notified the police of their losses with a view to catching the thieves in the act.” “The council has the matter in hand and is considering a substantial reward for information loading to the conviction of sheep thieves." said the South Canterbury and North Otago representative on the Dominion Me t and Wool Council (Mr G. W. Scott) to-day. Inquiries made from a number of runholders in the Mackenzie district did not disclose that high-country sheepfarmers north-west of Timaru had suffered losses of sheep through theft.