EAR-MARKING SHEEP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1000, 11 June 1862, Page 4

EAR-MARKING SHEEP.

TO THE EDITOR OP TUB ITTTELTOS TIM eg. Sin,—On several previous occasions you have kindly afforded me space to lay before the sheep, farmers of the province a grievance of my own, hut one which might affect any one of them in the present defective state of the law. I shewed in rny former letters, or at least I endeavoured to show that the Messrs. Kennaway had not only without reason and justice, but despite of reason and ju s . tice, taken and kept possession of my sheep and lambs. Several months have elapsed since my last communication, and this long interval I have allowed in the hope that better counsels would change the determination of the Messrs. Kennaway and lead them to restore to me the property proved to be mine. In this hope I have been disappointed and I have come to the resolution of once more trying whether reason shall prevail, or a jury of my countrymen decide between us. I may here briefly recapitulate the charges I brought against the Messrs. Kennaway in my lettera of Jan. 18 and Feb. 1. I stated that a number of my ear-marked sheep were found by my overseer in the shed of the Kennaway's, at shearing time, and on his demanding them he was refused on the ground that they might be Mr. Hay's or Mr. Burke's sheep, but that nevertheless they would give them up if we (that is myself and my brother) demanded them. We did demand them, and our demand was treated with contempt. I showed moreover a worse feature in the conduct of the Messrs. Kennaway, viz.: that they took advantage of the circumstance of the Waste Lands Board defining as within the boundaries of their run a piece of doubtful country over which our sheep had been running for years, to claim a large per centage of the lambs there, though their own siieep had never depastured within many miles of our flock; and that they persuaded an inexperienced young man in our employment to consent under pressure that their claim should be allowed. I said, and again say, most emphatically, that in demanding the fulfilment of such an agreement in the face olf the clear testimony that none of those lambs could be theirs, it was not the act of honest men. To these charges a letter, signed Lawrence Kennaway, (in the' Times,' Jan. 22,) full of mis-statements and pretensions to honourable feeling, is the only satisfaction I have received from Messrs. Kennaway. One passage in that letter is so specious and withal so false that I will here quote -it at length, and then demonstrate its untruthfulness. Mr. L. K. says : — " For years Messrs. Kennaway and Delamain's sheep have been running within a mile and a half, a mile, and a stone's throw of the points where the sheep were found. * * * *' * * A large number of the sheep mustered, found nearer his sheep-occupying country than our own, were by Mr. Acton at once handed over to him (myself) untouched. ****** Of the 330 sheep mustered, 150 were delivered to him unexamined; that 140 more (found not where the former were, but within hail as it were oi our sheep-occupied country) became his by the arrangements," &c. Now, sir, any one reading and believing that passage after seeing my statement, must believe what Mr. K. insinuates, that delirium has fallen upon my miisi, or it could not have raised up for itself so baseless a nightmare. Let me, however, shew the facts relative to the position of the sheep challenged, and I state only what can be proved, and then let them judge of Mr. Ken n a way's veracity. Since those letters were published I have traversed the country in' question, and taken evidence of all the transactions alluded to. I have got a tracing from the Survey Map of the district, shewing the position of Messrs. Kennaway's hut, the boundary between our several runs, and between ours and Mr.. Marsack's, with the boundary lines of the adjoining runs, the place where the 150 sheep were found which were handed, over to us untouched, and the place where sheep were found from which Mr. Acton, as manager for the Kennaways, took-above 50 per cent of our lambs. The tracing here mentioned is now lying at the office of Mr. Slater, Christchurch, and may be seen by any oue desirous of further satisfaction. Well, then, premising that Kennaway's hut the only place occupied by them previous, and for some time after the division of the lambs, is the centre of the only country on which they depastured sheep, the tracing will shew that the place where the 140 sheep were handed over to us was not, as L. K. states, " within hail as it were of their sheepoccupied country," but ten miles in a direct line from their hut, and not more than two to three miles from our boundary j and within half-a-mile from a place where from 3000 to 5000 sheep supposed to belong to us, had been running for seven years. The men'who have charge of this boundary of our run declare that they never saw nor ever heard of one of Kennaway's sheep being in this part of the ran previous to the muster, when three ,or four doubtful ones were found, only two of which (and those newly shorn) could be shewn to be Kennaways, although a third one bore the K D brand. And yet, in spite of this fact, so patent to them, the Messrs. Kennaway take from 36 to 40 of my lambs, and still refuse to give them up. * I do not wish this statement to rest upon my unaided testimony, and therefore subjoin the evidence of my agent and overseer, Messrs. Nosworthy and Hayter. Mr. Nosworthy found- that our shepherd had been ordered off the country where our sheep had been some years grazing, by the Messrs. Kennaway, the Waste Lands Board having included it within their boundary. Mr. Kennaway afterwards called upon and informed Mr. Nosworthy that he would muster that , part of the country previously belonging to us, , and that he would allow us 50 per cent of. lambs. Mr. Nosworthy's evidence on this matter is as follows:— " I asked what was to become of any overplus supposing there should be lambs at the rate of 70 or 80 per cent, when he would not give me any answer. I asked him this because I was certain that there were none of his sheep running on that part of the couutry, excepting possibly a few stray ones ; but Mr. Rhodes had several thousands there up to the time that Mr. Keun&way ordered our shepherd away. * "On my asking Mr. Kennaway that question he turned away and said that if I could not accept of'his offer he would consider the proposal dropped. I then thought as he would not allow any of our men to go on the country nor allow us to muster it he would go and muster it himself and takeaway what sheep there were. " Previous to this I had been to the Kennaway's, in consequenqe of their not allowing our shepherd to go on the country, and informed them that we had most probably a considerable number of sheep there, and that we should muster them. He then told me he would not allow us to do so, but that we should do so in conjunction with them. " These are the grounds upon which I agreed to the terms mentioned in the letter, but I certainly should not have agreed to them had "I not been afraid that they would muster lie country themselves. I also did not intend that they should take away all over 60 per cent, unless the Kennaways had sheep in the Hock when mustered. It afterwards turned out, when the sheep were mustered, that there were nearly 400 sheep of ours, three — and only three-—belonging to the Kennaways, which three had just beeu shorn, and consequently were merely stray ones." .*■ Mr. Hayter's evidence isv "I went to transfer the sheep in the country

J'eferred to in conjunction with the Messrs. KennaWhys' men in the month of November, 1860, about the"26th of this rnonlh. On mustering, we found there were nearly 400 sheep belonging to the Messrs. Rhodes, and three recently-shorn ewes belonging to the Kennaways. I then told Mr. Acton, who appeared to be, and I believe was, Kennaways' agent, that under the circumstances he could not take away any sheep, as they ail belonged, with the exception of the three shorn ones, to us; when Mr. Acton laughed at me, and said it was no business of mine, that I was there to obey my masters' orders, which he had in writing in his pocket. He referred, I believe, to the agreement between the Kennaways and Mr. Nosworthy as to giving the Messrs. Rhodes 50 per cent. I certainly did not expect when it was found that they (the Kennaways) had no sheep there, that they would take away any lambs; but although I remonstrated with Mr. Acton and told him he had.no right to do so, still he took away, between 30 and 40 lambs and three shorn ewes, which I am certain did not belong to that mob of sheep. I have produced sufficient evidence to satisfy any impartial reader that there is no more truth in L. K.'s statement that the sheep were _ within hail of their sheep-occupied country, than in his other statement that in branding our ear-marked sheep it was done innocently and in the " bustle' of shearing. And now I would beg attention to the assumption of liberality to us in the passage : " a large number of the sheep mustered found nearer his sheep occupied country than our own, were by Mr. Acton at once handed to him untouched." Really, sir, this is the very height of impudence, as I am sure you will think when you have read what I am going to advance. A reference to the tracing of which I have spoken (and the correctness of which I am prepared to prove) will show that this flock was found between three and four miles from our boundary, and 18 miles in a direct line from the hut of the Blessra. Kennaway! These sheep belonged principaly to Messrs. Slack and Le Fleming and partly to us, we being responsible for the increase. Mr. Acton demanded all over 50 per cent increase out of this lot also, by virtue of the agreement his partners had made with our agent. Our overseer, Mr. Hayter refused, on the ground that if he gave up lambs belonging to Slack and LeFleming we should have to make them up out of our flock. Acton replied, he did not care for that; if there were any sheep he could claim he would take all over 50 per cent. He wished them to be mixed with the other flock, in which he kiiew there were two or three bearing their brand. This mixing of the flocks was refused. When he examined the sheep he could not find one which he could claim, and they were "handed over untouched"! On behalf of Kennaway and ourselves, four men, each of whom knew every inch of the_ district, were employed for about a fortnight searching about 20,000 acres of country, principally plain and low downs, which resulted in discovering only four of Kennaway's sheep, one of which only I have reason to believe, belonged to Messrs. Kennaway. It is very evident that the firm had made. a perfect search of the country. They knew the description of our stray sheep. One day, a shepherd of ours, named Wood, passed over our boundary to fetch a ewe and lamb that;had strayed not more than ten chains on to the adjoining run. He was met by the two Kennaways, Mr. Acton, and Mr. Lee. They ordered him off, forbade him taking the ewe and lamb, saying that the run had been awarded to them, and that they should claim all sheep found upon it. This was before the general muster, and before the agreement! As far as the facts immediately bearing upon my case are concerned, I might perhaps now judiciously close my letter; but it seems to me that some persons may labour under the impression that a bad animus towards the firm in question has led me to exaggerate the evil inflicted upon me. I will not pretend to deny that the consciousness of having been deprived of sheep which the Kennaway firm retain, has been . a source of irritation to me; but in thus publicly denouncing wrong-doing, it is in the hope that it may, Ist, prevent > other sheepfarmers from shearing and then brandirfg sheep not their own; and 2nd, of urging upon the pastoral community the necessity of obtaining a law which will operate to prevent the recurrence of a; case like mine. . , ' _ , I am, sir, your obliged servant, R.H.RHODES. p. s —Since writing the above, I have heard that the Messrs. Kennaway have given orders to return the ear-marked sheep; I can only hope that they will shortly see fit to return the lambs and increase also. ;