LIVE AND LET LIVE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 68, 23 March 1949, Page 4

LIVE AND LET LIVE

Sir, —Two articles that have appeared in print since the Federated Farmers Organisation came into existence called public attention to the poorest paid man, the country blacksmith and to the fact that horse shoes are scarce in the Bay of Plenty.

A Mr Munro is quoted as saying at the Provincial Executive meeting of the Farmers’ Union, Auckland, that he knew something about blacksmithing. He knew the charge for shoeing was high. Many farmers could not afford to pay, but th£ smiths’ overhead expenses had gone up. He- had known a group of farmers starve out a' blacksmith with a large family, and then starve out the man they put in his place to carry on.

The blacksmiths of today are men who learned their trade when horses were plentiful. The argument “could not afford to pay” applied, or might have applied, then. Following the slump years, farmers received as low as fivepence per lb butterfat and today as much as 2/6. In this comparison you find the principle of live and let live. Horse shoes are scarce in the Bay of Plenty. The complaint • arises from the individuals who are receiving up to 2/6 per lb for butterfat and cannot now purchase mach-ine-made horse shoes from their grocer or shopkeeper at their cost price. They don’t trouble to inquire from the blacksmith if he can make a set of shoes. Now the shopkeeper, not being able to sell shoes, has created a gap in the policy, of starving out or cold war against the blacksmiths. Pull down the machine-made horse shoes hanging over your door or nailed above. They were good scrap iron when the Japanese were looking for fun fodder. It must be apparent that the lack of support to blacksmiths has diverted wrought iron and steel to other channel's. So much so that wholesale firms don’t worry about the blacksmith’s business requirements. Want will always ask for supply. Fairness has no branches that bear blossoms of ill will. Then why try and graffe blame where it won’t mature? A united body can create demand for supply in both iron and steel if persued through the right channels.

Remember, there are many fighting the world’s cold war today. They don’t all wear the same coats; “Live and let live’* is not written in their rituals. Yours etc., * 1 P. MORA, Taneatua. P.S. I am not writing this from an interested point of view but a sense of fairness prompts the action.