SCANDALOUS DRIVING OF STOCK.

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13891, 17 October 1918, Page 2

SCANDALOUS DRIVING OF STOCK.

(To the Editor.) yii- t —i for one am i>l' I to hoar the Council arc taking action in Hie above matter, but I fear il will lie (lie wrong way to please tin' tanning community. Heading your report in Saturday's issue, it looks as it our respected city fathers Know as much about driving stock as stock knows about them. Although 1 have no <isire to be persona! or sarcastic, fie manner these men think farmers should drive stuck to the Ilamili.m saleyards is absolute rot. There is a remedy; not by sending Hie drivers id stock a few more miles farther round —that is no cure. As far as the present sale\an]» are concerned, !he Council should send the stock by the shortest and quickest possible route to the yards. That would save time for drovers, the slock would lie fully an hour less on the road, reduce the risk to pedestrians, save hundreds of pounds a year in cutting up the streets, give the farmers perhaps half an hour longer in town, and his stock would look pounds each better when under the hammer. Now, this driving of stock to the ends of the earth to please a few townies who have never put their foot in a water hole, or could tell a bull from a cow. is all very well; but let me say the farmer lias 1} grievance, too, and if the rulers of our city are going to get the cookies' backs up they will iind all the fat stock being railed to Westflcld, all pigs to bacon factories, sheep to freezers, and store lines to Ohaupo, Ngiruavvahia or elsewhere. These extra miles will do it. Then, Cr. Young would not require a man to walk in front of each bleating lamb with a boll to say he was coming, and Cr. Tris- ' tram would not have the curses of drovers during his Own dreams early in the morning. Mr Editor, the solution is simple, and if the Council have time to waste going over miles of stock routes, I would ask them to go into committee and establish saleyards on each side of the river. It must come to this in the end, and if they intend doing something, why not do it now? This is an old proposition, and if I am not mistaken a number of settlers have details at their finger ends now who would be able to supply toll data required. These gentlemen gave a lot of time to the scheme about two years back, and to again review it would not be out of place. To my way of thinking debentures would be. taken up readily by the farmers each side of the river. Sales could be held fortnightly at each yard, and no inconvenience would be made to the selling staff. The idea has worked quite well at a North Island town, with a river running through the centre, similar to Hamilton. I think it would be quite as satisfactory here. There are fifty reasons why this idea should be put in practice.—l am, etc., G. H. BOYD. Horsham Downs, Oct. li,