The Good Old Days.

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 114, 7 February 1935, Page 7

The Good Old Days.

THE DOG IN THE ’FORTIES We are all familiar with the old saw “Give a dog a bad name and hang him.” It may not be so generally known that the words express what was actually the law and practice in New Zealand in the early days. In 1814 an Ordinance was enacted “to provide a summaty mode of abating the nuisance, of dogs wandering at large in towns.” Dogs guilty of this misdemeanour were liable to be seized, kept for a night and a day, and, if claimed, delivered to the owner on payment of a fine. But the matter did not always end so satisfactorily—for the dog—for the Ordinance proceeds to say: “If within the said night and day no such claim and payment as aforesaid shall have been made In respect of any dog kept as ■aforesaid, the person having the custody of such dog shall forthwith destroy the same by hanging.” But even in those bad old days justice was tempered by a little mercy, inasmuch as provision was made for the “keep” of the unhappy animal during the time his fate was hanging in the balance: and the constable, when making his weekly account of fines received, was entitled to deduct, as compensation for bis trouble, “the sum of sixpence for the keep of every dog seized within the u;eek preceding, together with the sum of two shillings in resect of each dog delivered to the owner thereof.” —J.W.B.