| Show THE SEW ESTHIT LiW IN our itfcne yesterday we pub lished the efctray bo parsed at the tate sef lon of the Legislature As many of our naden are aware the former statute upon the same suh jet had by the court been de dared invalid in teveral slits vital provisions and the territory was virtually without legislation In n garth to tlra vs and tre < pas Ing an mate There was urgent demand fora law upon tho subject and the urn < Governor err iu his message to i this great need Early In the res iou a bill was Introduced Into and pasted by the Council Intended to ulply the lnt but the House reJect Ject ll l It with the undcrtandin that certain of Ito members would draw a better one The matter wa deferred until the last day of the sionwben the bill which becam the present law was intrducttl passed p Tho aim of this statute h in the I direction of Justice and hence to I that extent I Is n commendable measure What It is Intended to accomplish ought to be done and while we ore reluctant to raise ob Jecticiw to a law the design of which Is beneficent we deem I proper to call attention to some provIsions visions contained In tills ono which are of doubtful validity We reproduce re-produce sections and 3 Sec 2 1 horses mules and neat cattle regardless of age except suck log calves and colts found runnln at large on which there h no brad and all snch animals branded the ownr of which after reasonable siuch cannot b found and which have been running at large on any range in tit Territory for one year or more and any hogs running at large on the premises of any > eraon no the wner a hereby declared to beet trays traysSec Sec 1 i is hereby made the duty ot the cn tAU < of any precinct to take up any Cp in Mid precinct and after adtenuing them giving herein a general description for tend ten-d < ys he bal sell the same at public auction t the highest bidder for ca hand h-and afierdedoetingcosU and expenses of keeping and tale shall deposit the balance of the proceeds of Halo with the laIce of the peace to b by him disposed of a in cose of the solo ot animals for damages as hereinafter provided The two sections are of a very weeping nature They define wba are tktrays and make I the duty of the constable to round np advertise and Fell unless sooner claimed al estray In Ma precinct I auanlma h been running on the range for one year and Its owncrafterreason able search cannot l > e found I Is an estray Howlslttobedetermluei whether a given animal has run on ttie range ono year How is i to be ascertained that the owner cannot b found Who Is required to search for him On whose or cn what showing I the conclusion to bo reached that the facts exist which make an cstray of any given anl mil If those facts exist Lime constable con-stable unJer section 3 derelict in his duty if he falls to take charge of au1 advertise the animal If those facts do not exist he i guilty of a violation of law should he take charge of and tell animal chae 11 an supposing sup-posing It to be an vt tray and liable for damages These questions of fact can b determined de-termined only by a Judicial officer and a Judical 1 proceeding A constable con-stable Is nota judicial officerhas no right to exercise Judicial functions nor pass upon questions of law and Met In a manner or proceeding Involving In-volving the ownership cf property His doing la luc a case would all b undone as soon as they wrrtDatd before a court of competent Jurisdiction diction The provisions of the i Poland law are explicit f to what officers may exercise Judicial law ef Constables are not Included In tbD there named and hence must b held to be excluded While I is trl that there nrr in many precincts of this Territory large number of rug anima that have no known owners and while i is Jwt and proper that tunic valuable valu-able property Miould be utilized and not be allowed to live die and go to waste unclaimed yet to give a constable con-stable power to C out on the range and round upaud t 1 all animals be may suppose to have been running run-ning there year and whose owners own-ers are unknown to him would certainly create gnat commotion in stock raising district I is very common to allow calves an I coltsto run en the range until they are three or four ytan old und to render all sui h block liable to be bold b cause the owners were not known to the constable would work loss on numerous citizens upon whom no fault fET fE-T bad confluences of a literal and thorough execution of the provisions visions ol MCtions 2 and Z nn not b dwelt upon nt length In order to b comprehended In tome precincts thousands of head of stock would le fl whose owners have more or less knowledge of and care over them and which are not rstray stock at nil in any reasonable osmose of them term For reason apparent ap-parent from what has Itcu saId above we regard these two eettions as Inoperative and would advhc constables to be very cautious In act Ingunllcr them It remains to be seen what the I result of practical operations under I I tbe law will bj but aside from MC tons 2 and 3 w e believe it will work satisfactorily and that i meets every constitutional objection made to the old law The procedure under un-der It Is simple and easily understood under-stood It does away with pound keepers entirely and authorizes a man on whose bud trespassing animals ani-mals do damage to distrain that is I to wild and boil In his own possts slon such animalsuntil tliedamagt sit s-it jald instead of turning them over to a uudkeeftr He must properly care for time animals and i he knows tine ow uer need i the latter lat-ter lIves within live miles of them place Hhvre the animals arc i trained he must bu notified If the damages are not paid within forty eight hours after the animals n seized the party Injured must begin i a civil action In the Justices cur i of that 1 lnct by filing a sworn I complaint the form of which I given in sectIon 5 From that time on the case is Iu the bands of the justices court whose procedure prescribed III tie be law That the expense may made as light as possible thejustlce may charge only half tie fees allowed al-lowed in oilier cases In tbe simplicity sim-plicity and justice of 1U provisions and In their practicability vrc b lieve the law will prove an cxct lent one except ox noted in re into in-to sections 2 and 3 I |
