WANDERING COWS IN WAIKAWA

Southland Times, Issue 24859, 26 September 1942, Page 3

WANDERING COWS IN WAIKAWA

A complaint of an unusual nature, from a Waikawa ratepayer, was read at the meeting of the Southland County Council yesterday. "Could you please oblige me by letting me know just what can be done about the cattle that roam the roads in and around Waikawa,” stated the letter. “It is high time something was done. There are two dairy herds roaming the roads here. The owners haven’t an acre of ground to run them on. So there is only one other alternative—that is the long paddock which leads sooner or later to somebody’s garden—if it is not by the gate crash method, then it’s bj' hurdling fences. I returned home one night to find half a dozen cows tramping over my newly-planted seed beds. They had eaten half the young cabbage plants—very encouraging I must say. when one has such little time at one’s disposal, working in an essential industry, to find hard work gone through some unnecessary evil that should be put off the roads. "This is the only place in Southland where people can run dairy herds on the roads and get away with it. Please tell me why. Nearly every citizen in this place has had his garden ruined by these animals. When one approaches the owners of the cows one is treated to sarcasm or poorly veiled contempt. Is there no law whereby these pests can be stopped, or must one build a six-foot concrete wall around one’s place to enable one to have an unmolested garden?" . .. . The clerk (Mr H. C. Gimblett) said that there was no ranger and no pound in Waikawa. It was decided to refer the matter to the member for the riding and the county engineer.