THE DOG NUISANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4163, 22 June 1875, Page 3

THE DOG NUISANCE.

Til THK KIIITOH. Sin—During the night between Saturday and Sunday last, the sheep running in my paddocks at Green Island were badly worried liy dosrs. Some are missing and several are so badly bitten that they are not likely to recover. Lately several retriever dogs have been seen about without owners ; these and other sporting dogs are most destructive to sheep. They are kept mostly as pets, and the owners having no work for them, or, in most cases, being uuaule to work them, the animals pursue their natural instincts as beasts of prey, and find occupation for themselves. The matter has a public- interest as bearing upon proper farming and on the price of meat. The losses to the butchers who keep sheep about the suburban districts for the Hunedin market has been very considerable. Lately a dog, caught in the act of worrying sheep in this district, was pursued to Caversham, where, of course, no one owned him. The Police did a good act some years ago in destroying unowned dogs, and it is well tulit public attention should Vie called not only to the serious results of the nuisance complained of, but to the fact that all dogs at large without a ?ollar showing the owner's name thereon may be destroyed.—l tun, &c, John Cumuli.. Dunedin, 21st June, 1875. CAPE SAUNDEP.S LIGHTHOUSE. To THK KUVrOK. Snt—The other day I had a most delightful ride down the Peninsula, and amidst all the charming scenery there to be seen one object arrested my attention. It looked like a large, white mor.ument, erected to the memory of some departed hero, and yet, perched as it is on the top of the outfitting point of (•ape Saunders, it seemed useless for it to be there. Captain Tail's letter in your paper twoi days ago explains what it is —the Cape Saunders Lighthouse: that is, it is the house without the light—a light which our seamen, one and all, are crying out for. The Government decide on a site, erect an expensive building, and leave it there without putting that into it which it was built for years ago. Really, sir, such neglect, or false economy, would be inexcusable if times were bad and the exchequer empty, but in these days of million loans I am at a loss to account for such conduct. And so every year passes by, bringing its freight of risk 'to life and property, and I nothing is done, till in fact "the ship is lost for a penny-worth of tar." One fact alone ought t"> urge the Chamber of Commerce to stir "the Government in this matter. Last English mail rift Suez left the Bluff on a Friday night, and ought to have been delivered here by 10 o'clock next morning. But a heavy S.W. gale came on, and the steamer in the darkness, for want of the Cape Saunders light, ran past the Heads, and wa.s not able to make the Port till the afternoon of Saturday: and consequently the mail was not delivered till night, and many people did not get their letters till Monday. Nor was it any fault for seamanship, for no prudent captain would dare to approach lar-d on such a night so close as to enable him to make out Cape Saunders without a light, and once he passed it he could not possibly make the Heads.—l am, &c, Ph Altos.