Year: 1871

The Alta California in abiding to the
cool proposition to enact no fence or tres
pass Law for the entire State, says


"a bill to repeal the fence law has been
intr oduced in the Legislature, and the main
questions will be whether the repeal should
apply to the whole State or orly to part
of it. There will, we presume, be little
objection to the repeal from the counties
10 the heart of the Sacramento Valley and
on the coast from Sonoma southward. The
newspapers of Shasta and Calaveras, how
ever, say their districts would be injured
BY change of the law, and they want to
be excepted. The same conditions prevail
in large part of the Sierra Nevada, SO it
is not unlikely that the Representatives Of
the Northern part of the State and those
from the mining counties will insist that
the reform shall be restricted to the valleys
and the middle and southern coast. Our
impression is that while there is great need
of reform in The Valleys and along the
coast, it would be unwise to disregard the
opinion Of the people in the mountainous
districts, and that it would be unfair for the
Representatives of the remainder of the
State to take advantage of their preponder-
ance in the Legislature to force unwelcome
laws upon the mining counties"


Now the above is fair statement of the
mooted question, and the impression of the
editor in regard to the unfairness of repeal
ing the present fence law in the mountain
counties, is correct.


The Sacramento Reporter, in comment
ing on the statements of the COURIER in
relation to the sentiments of the people of
this section on the question alluded to, also
seems disposed to favor justice to both the
"fence" and "no- fence" advocates. The
Reporter says the will of the people of the
respective counties should be consulted,
and if the people of Los Angeles say "no
fence" let them have NJ fences, and if the
inhabitants of Calaveras say they want
"fences" around their places, and desire to
let their stock range free on the unenclos
ell lands, let them have their way, and so
on all through.


Now we are gratifed to see that the AL
ia and Reporter take the right view of this
important question, and that they are in
favor of having justice, in place of Outrage
and wrong, meted out to those counties
vitality interested in the maintenance of
the "fence law" as it now applies to them.
Like the Alta and Reporter we agree that
the "no fence" law should be extended to
the valley counties, where timber is scarce,
if the people there want such regulation
and in harmony with these journals we al
so hold to the opinion that the extension
of the law over such counties as would be
injured thereby, would be unwise and un-
fair


The just course of the Alta and Reporter,
in giving fair statements of the question at
issue, is in marked contrast, however, to
that of the Bee and other no fence papers.
The Bee and its coadjutors advocate the
extension of their favorite law throughout
the State, regardless of the objections Of
the majority of the people of such counties
as Humboldt, Del Norte, Klamath, Siski-
you, Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Lassen Plu-
mss, Calaveras, ETC. In fact these Jealous
xo-fence champions have so far entirely
ignored the fact that there is any opposi-
tiop whatever to the proposed repeal of the
fence law now in force in most of the coun-
ties of the State, and have steadily pro-
claimed the falsehood that the demand for
repeal was universal Such a narrow
course, when pursued by journals like the
Bee and Bulletin, papers claiming to rep
resent the news and intelligence of the
State, places them in ridiculous position
before the public, and shows that their pre-
tensions as newspapers and correct rehec-
tors of public sentiment, are somewhat
empty, and that their statements may be
taken with many grains of allowance. We
are glad to observe that the Alta and Re-
porter have more regard for their reputa-
tion, and are honest enough to give true
statements in relation to question to which
there are two sides.


SCHOOL REpoRT.-Report Of the In
termediate Department of the Shasta Pub
| lie Schonl for the month ending Dec Is