MEAT TRUSTS AND SHIPPING COMBINES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2932, 18 November 1916, Page 10

MEAT TRUSTS AND SHIPPING COMBINES

Sir, —With your permission I would like to have something to sav oil this much vexed question. Now' that the above are one in their methods of business, tho_ farmers that tacklo them will require to be very clever, strong in finance and good, sound business men, and I think that unless it is taken in hand in a thorough businesslike manner it will he better left alone. But the question is so vital that it must he taken in hand and at no distant date at that, and I consider it behoves every level-headed farmer, both large and small to make a move such as never has been made in this country before. I personally am rather afraid the scheme cannot he carried out without the aid of the Government, for it is not only shins that are required, but wo also require wholesale meat .shoos in London and other centres, that is if we arc going to do the business as it should be done. Some years ago tlifi late Mr. Seddon talked of starting retail meat shops in London. That would have been fatal, hut had Mr. Seddon not have only suggested, but put into effect, wholesale meat shops in London, where a small butcher could have gone and bought half a dozen sheep or lambs and, a body of beef, it .would have been the finest thine that could have ever been done, and it is that' class of ishop that we' want for our meat in London, when the present war is over. The quantity sold at present, I am informed, at Home, to a retail butcher is 25 quart ters of beef or one hundred slieep or lambs. Now those quantities are far too large for a Rmsll butcher to handle, and here the middK-man geis in again, and it is the middle-man and the octopus that we require to keep out of the business altogether.. That "is if the farmer is to live a free man in the future. Mr. G. H. Scales, of Wellington, has proved himself a capable, man in I connection with the shipping of wool to London and in fact has been quite a boom to the farmers in helping to keep the price of freights down, and I understand that a good many farmers have taken shares _up with him in his business to help him to cone with the shipping business, and I 'think that now Air. Scales has proved himself a capable man the. farmers should try and see if he were nnw willing to put. the business on a much larger basis and with Mr. Scales as general manager. All schemes such as this waut a verv capable mail at the wheel. I-lav-intr <riven mv of tin's vital subject T hope that I will he the means of arousing, not one farmer, but hundreds of farmers, from their slumbers, to that we may yet be in time to escape the tentacles of the beef trusts and shipping combines.- Thanking you for your valuable space,—T am, etc ' Otnki. ''

COUNTRY ROADS Sir,—There is a matter that has considerably puzzled me as I travel about on my motor-cycle, and that is the way great, heavy motor lorries aim' timber wagons arc allowed to traverse roads when they arc well sodden, and so simply plough them up, and very soon destroy what it has cost much money to put in repair. During the last few weeks, when we have liad such a superfluity of rain, I have seen great 'heavy wagons carrying tons of goods going along, and when in their track had to he careful to avoid the ruts they made. ■Of course, it is a great convenience to carriers to get about, but then do not the general public suffer for it? Could there not be a rule made that any conveyance that breaks to a road by carrying an undue weight should be compelled to put the same in good order? This would restrain their use of the road to dry weather. The County Council about Kaponga. allow heavy conveyances to traverse the roads, when the same have paid tolls amounting to pounds for each trip, with the consequence that only those that carry light loads find it pays to travel over those excellent roads. Olio hopes that all the roads in New Zealand will soon be as well looked after and kept up. Thanking you in anticipation.—l am, etc.. I'TiED. H. SPENCER. A\ anganui. November 16. FINDS OF MOA BONES Sir, —1 was born near Christchurch, in the early 'fifties. Then, 1110 a bones lay about on the surface of the plains, and 1 remember as late as '78 seeing a number of bones on the hill-side near Burke's Pass. I'knew Dr. Von liaast, who was rather warm about the date of the extinction of the inoa, "and I took a great deal of interest in the debates thereon. I made some inquiries and investigations upon niy own account, and learned that the Maoris, using torches and fires, drove the moas into swamps, preferably small ones with an open centre and a margin of "nigger" heads—this for the reason that the kick of a moa was a very bad thing for a man if ho caught it, and the ring of "nigger" heads enabled the Maoris to reach and kill the inons without much personal risk. Such a swamp was that once known as Bentley's Lagoon, in the town of Timaru. Part of this was excavated for enginesheds in the late 'seventies, and then curious blue streaks were found iienetrating the clay for a considerable depth. The Maoris, after a big "kill," could not use all the moas they had slaughtered, and so ..many bodies were

left in the swamp. The phosphorous from tho bones of these, combined n-itli the swamp iron to form those bluish streaks penetrating the clay. ' Another favourite place to trap' the moas was on spits between the sea and lagoons when tho lagoons burst clieir way into the sea in winter. Down 3ii -to jjjeso spits the inoas were driven ml 'Saltwater Creek Lagoon, near Jjmaru. was a killing place, and ivhen I was young plenty' of pieces of moa eggs and the bones were to be Found there. Bv tho way, one curious thine is to be noted. In the GO's and 70's, when tlie land at the head of Saltnat?'i ?, ree ' c Ivns unbroken the lagoon would fill up several times in tlie winter and burst out into the sea at its northern end. After the land was broken up this occurred more rarelv— the cultivated porous soil held the rain like a sponge and there was a vcrv much greater loss by evaporation, and more moisture retained in the soil than when it was in tussock.—l am. etc OLD TIMARTI. A TAXI-DRIVER'S LICENSE Owing to a misunderstanding an impression appears to have been created that a taxi-driver named H inter recently convicted by tho Supreme Court of indecent assault in a taxi-car, had obtained a driver's licence from the Lower Hutt Borougii Council. I wish to remove that impression, and now state definitely that the man \Y inter has not made application to or been granted a driver's license of any kind by me.—l am, etc., W. M. NICHOLSON, T Town Clerk. . Lower Hutt, ;Novomber 17, 1916. OUR RAILWAY REGULATIONS Sir,—Some time ago I was in Taumarunui, and wished to board tho south express between midnight and 4 a.m. I bought a ticket and asked the clerk to book me a seat. He said he could not. I suggested that I would pay for a wire to.Hamilton, or any station he liked, to ascertain what spare seats there -were. He refused this, a.nd explained that under the regulations all ho could: do "was to book me as a passenger from Auckland, and even then I must take my chance of a seat being vacant. In.the end I had to remove a pair of legs from a seat and explain to the head that belonged to them that it was not entitled to one seat for its trunk and another for its feet. ) This was not a pleasant task at that hour. Yesterday'l was stranded at Paekakanki, and the only way of keeping my appointment was to board the north Mam Trunk express. There were two healthy porters with trolleys on the station, and it was raining hard. 1 had. a heavy trunk, but the porters did not deign to notice me, and I had to carry the trunk the length of the platform. Then I was informed that 1 had no official existence, as no passengers or luggage could be taken on board, although the train was standing two feet away. ; On my protesting that it was -a public train and I was prepared to pay my fare, the guard sug*"at if I paid my fare from Wellington I could go on. board. And so it was settled. The Railway Department is entitled to credit for preventing accidents and running its trains, up to time (mostly) • but surely it should see to.a little more than this. Apart from these two essentials its policy has been, and still is, to place the greatest number of obstacles in the way of the greatest number of travellers. I could multiply instances. Of course it does not really matter; because in twenty years the whole paraphernalia will be swept away and replaced by motor transport. But in the meantime the public is surely entitled to some relief in the instances I have quoted—l am, etc., AN INFREQUENT TRAVELLER, , BUTTER FAT TAX Sir,—l'm wondering if it is possible • that the cheese and butter producers ; are going to submit to the grossly unjust tax levied on the hardest worked 1 people in the Dominion. The Govern- ■ ment make the lame excuse that they are protecting the poor people. If they 1 said they were protecting-tlio wealthy they would be speaking the truth. Take Wellington, for instance. I challenge the Government to prove that 10 per cent. of. best factory butter,is consumed by the poor people. The swell hotels, clubs, shipping companies, tea and luncheon rooms (one of the 1 largest owned by a Reputed millionaire), and wealthy people' arc the consumers. We are taxed so that they may have cheap butter. In all the country towns good separator and dairy butter is always i to be had, and I know people, far from being poor,-- who use nothing else, and re who supply cheese factories use whey butter. Is it much wonder that there is a, growing bitterness as people are realising what this tax means. Poor I families working from 4 o'clock in tho I

morning until 7 and 8 o'clock at night and seven days a week taxed 3d, per lb. butter-fat, so that the wealthy may have their butter 3d. per lb. below present London market values. I say here, that if farmers worked only eight hourfl a day that butter could, not bo produced at the price fixed b}' the Government. It has been entirely owing to the slavery and long hours worked by the farmer and his family that people have been able to buy butter at a lower price than it could possibly l )e produced at otherwise. Bather than submit to till H U p nJ " ce of tl,e I would v™rlhi%h°T"T nt t0 PUt tlleir un " AN OVERWORKED WOMAN - .