Alleged Grain Buyers' Ring.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 2908, 25 February 1893, Page 2

Alleged Grain Buyers' Ring.

Tfc has, for some time past (says the *' Onmaru " Mail") been suspected that some thine was in the wind which was somewhat fluttering the dovecots of the millers of' this part of the colony. There have been several mysterious visits to Tiinaru, the only bigns of which were empty bottles, poultry bones, beef ribs, and, perhaps, bad heads. It was sa<d that the millers went" to the sister town to eat and drink and sing and make merry Generally. We knew that they ware jolly and that the Rev Mr Ryley was given to such junketings, but we could not understand why he should go all tne way to Timaru from Dunedin to have his fling. : having investigated the phenomenon, we were driven to the conclusion that the "beer and skittles," were only the accompaniments—the garnishinga— of something more substantial, and that a quiet i study of the *'silver question" was the motive that underlay the mysterious wanderings to and fro of the jovial crew. This appears'to have been a legitimate conclusion. The egg that Messrs Ryley and Co were keeping warm was to develop a i great grain-buying and flour-milling rina, | of which we learn the prospectus has already appeared j Owr readers n ill be good 1 enough not to say anything about it, for | the project is as yet a dead secret We, j however, who are not supposed to keep secrets, may say that the capital of the ring, or syndicate, or company, is to be a quarter of a million, and that already a miller—not, however, an Oamsru one— openly states that lie is bound not to give more than a certain price for' wheat, in consequence of the understanding which has been arrived at. This is taken to indicate that the conspiracy has already assumed a definite and pratical form, so that the ptesent grain season may uot be lost to the conspirators. Our readers will please keep it dark, but his understood that the main objects of the scheme are, as we said in a previous article, to enable millers £o secure,wheat at their own prices and to sell flour at their own prices. What a lively outlook there would be fer the farmers if this object could be accomplished, and there were no such appeal 10 Osesar %s an English market affords. Bu t " The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley," It appears that the millers are not quite unanimous over this philanthropic "combine," as our Americau cousins would call it. Thero ia one great miller at Christehurch, for instance, who (it is said) being independent of monetary institutions, is able to ignore the conspirators. He is a great miller indeed. There is not, it appears, that unanimity amongst the milk re uf the colony that would be necessary to enable the idea to be carried out sucjessfully, and toere is serious danger that outsiders might split up the whole plot and the plotters. We of course, do not know what is tho condition of the business of milling and the financial position of the millers, but we conclude that if millers have no other alternative than to embark ' in this combination to keep wheat down and flour up their situation must be desperate. We note that the discussion on the question was attended by a Danquet, but even men who banquet, and that freely, do not ordinarily quite lose all rational power. We are, therefore, surprised that a scheme which has so. many weak places in ie should have been thought of. A high legal authority has stated that thp project is illegal, and that ! he could, and perhaps would, bmst it up; but whether this be so or not, it may be depended upon that the people of New Zealand would not permit such a vicious system of robbery under arms to take root amongst them. One singular feature of the affair \s that those who are said to be parties to it have loudly proclaimed that freedom of contract is their god.