A REPLY TO THE RANGER'S REPORT.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XL, Issue XL, 3 December 1909, Page 1

A REPLY TO THE RANGER'S REPORT.

To the' Editor.' - '

Sir,—With your kind permission, just a few remarks re,thefreply, of the county ranger -to'*, my .jstate'ments. This worthy glibly states " my assertions are-grossly exaggerated,'/'which iniquitous' attempt to impugn the truth of'.the information as suppliecl by me to the council from. : time to; time ? 'regarding - the! : manner'in, which' the,.said official - discharges his duties, in the locality in question. " I make no--apology -vin hurling' back - in his teeth- the insinuation—designed purposely to, deceive;-.and as. a rejoinder I venture/to ( characterise the. report. presented- to 'last '■ meeting of the council as a flagrant : falsification of thejsosition, I repeat .emphatically, that cattle _.are allowed to wander at large on the roadways in Home Gully without any genuine attempt being made by. the ranger, to t deal with them. Further, he goes ,on_ to "say that " nearly everybody -in the locality keeps a cow, to which I strongly object " —another insidious attempt to misrepresent and misconstrue my actions. 1 I care not who keeps a cow, or how many th'ey keep. What I strongly object to / is that the' roadways' adjacent 'to my property shall not be used as a rookery- or shelter shed for all the wand c ring cattle in the neighbourhood. /We' are also informed that owners of such cattle permission to graze them, on -the Eyeburn Station." It is palpably, apparent, however, that .such ; persons -fail to avail themselves' of any such .opportunity, judging.. by the number of cattle/ seen continually prowling about,, ,to the full knowledge' of"the ranger : , and " the persons \ acquainted withsthe matter' who know | otherwise." But listen! Lastly this I official gravely informs us, without j any due inflation of the chest, " That i cattle found wandering on the. roads [ are promptly dealt with." The peri farmance of this extraordinary feat is specially.reserved for/the delectation of persons resident -in Hamilton andi other such faraway places, but there iis no record in Mr Sullivan's: books of any such happening at,this end of the council's' long paddocks—of this I am convinced to my cost,, legal and otherwise. Such a luthless violation of the local trespassers'. " moral ' code would be too serious a matter for the official in question to contemplate. I But enough! I wait with patience for the curtain to be'rung .down'on the last act of this Gilbertian farce.—l am, etc.,

W. Beath. i Naseby, November 29th. (As we are -sure the public quite understand Mr Beath's attitude on the question we have decided to clo3e the correspondence.—Ed.)