THE FENCING ACT.—A HARD CASE.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVI, Issue 4000, 17 June 1870, Page 4

THE FENCING ACT.— A HARD CASE.

To the Editor of the Daily Southern Ceoss. Sir, —I see in your papei a great outcry by the cattle-owners ; and one of their very best advocates, in a paper read at Waiuku, coolly inquires where the farmers are opposed to the stook-ovraers, and has the hardihood to say that it is men that are in town, and not practical farmers, that wish the Act repeale 1; and, in proof of what he says, l'efers to the statistics. It is very likely bhat they may be as he says, but why are they so ? It is this very law that has kept, and will keep, things in this state. But; as one real case take my own, and see whether I have had any trouble in complying with the provisions of this ruinous Act. I have been six years here ; I brought with me £250 cash, and a family of five sons and a daughter — the eldest is now twenty- seven years, the youngest is fifteen years. We wsie all roared on a farm, and our fathers before us for generations. Three of my sons were at that time first-i'ate farming men. I vvas then, and am now, quite able to do a clay's work. We thought we were coming to a free country ; that we would be clear of the landlord ; and that this was a land that men like iia would be respected and encouraged. 1 bought a farm on the head waters of the Kaipara. We set to work and put in potatoes. We had a good crop. The cattle did not trouble us the first year. Broke up more ground next year, putting in wheat and rye, with more potatoes ; but now began our troubles. The cattle came on us and ruined the whole. The crop was good if we could have kept the cattle away, and the result is that I and my family will be compelled to abandon my home, the family be scattered, and everyone shift for themselves. We have lost our money and our labour for all these years, and that on perhaps the best piece of land in that part of the country. They may ta^k about insect pests and other matters ; all I want is — let me have my land to work in my own way — to put up and take down fences when and where I want them ; and even now, I know that I would make a home for myself, provide for the whole of us, and produce more five hundred- fold out of it than can be got by running cattle on it. But, sir, I want no help. I want no assistance ; all I want is fair play. It may be tLat it is not men like me and my sons that are wanted here ; but men that burn the fern twice a year, in the spring and autumn, for the young fern to their cattle. These fires run for miles, destroy flax, fences, forests, and bridges, to say nothing of houses. I have known all this happen, but of course no one docs it. — I am, xc, Kahikatea Flat.