THE GATLINS FIRE LOSSES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22713, 28 October 1935, Page 13

THE GATLINS FIRE LOSSES

to the editor. Sir, —I believe that the Gatlins bush fires have done a lot of good. Bracken had got almost the whole of Gatlins in its grip. It was only a matter of a few r years and it would drive two-thirds of the unfortunate farmers into the ranks ,of the unemployed. Take, for instance, cne particular farmer of my acquaintance, who bought a farm in Gatlins and stocked it with 500 ewes in' the spring of the year. Almost half of them simply lay down and died. The conclusion I arrived at is this: The bracken is a hot bed in the winter time for the parasites that prey on the lives of sheep. It would seem that in the spring of the year they become active and do their deadly work. It is possible that the forest fires will have eradicated the disease in the district and the settlers will gain for it in the future. Nevertheless I am wholly in sympathy with them in their petitions for Government assistance. Certainly those that lost stock should be compensated, and further, these settlers should be exempted from the high taxation of the times. To tax them is as bad as to hang a man for a murder which he never committed. The maw of the Government is never satisfied. The insane promises of the Labour Party has driven the Government to desperation. Hence the madness of over-taxing the backbone of the country. I am, etc., Experience. October 25.