Untitled

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3551, 25 November 1882, Page 2

During the ensuing season there will probably be several thousand sheep bought in Hawke's Bay for the stocking of East Coast runs and the country lately taken up beyond Gisborne. _ All these sheep will be driven via Wairoa. If it were possible to take them by any other route the Wairoa road would not be selected. And for this season: that there are five unbridged rivers to cross, at each of which a charge is levied by the so-called ferryman of one penny per sheep. A small drove of one thousand sheep would thus be charged in all no less than £20 16s 8d for the privilege of passing through a county that does not possess a road or a bridge. In buying sheep in this district for export to Poverty Bay this extra 5d a head must be taken into consideration by purchasers. _ These ferry charges are most scandalous impositions, for the unfortunate drover receives no quid pro quo for what he pays. We have on previous occasions called attention to this matter, but, we presume, the Wairoa Council cannot afford to depreciate the letting value of its ferries, by making the passage of sheep and cattle free. In consideration of the injury the ferry extortion is doing to the trade in sheep in this district the Hawke's Bay County Council might make such representations to the Wairoa Council as to induce that body to prohibit the collection of a most unjustifiable tax on travelling live stock. We may mention that sheep can be driven from Napier to'any portion of the Bay of Plenty, to the Waikato, to Aucklaud, ancl to the Thames, without any ferry charge whatever.