The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, JULY 9, 1892. "False Colours "

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 9, 9 July 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, JULY 9, 1892. "False Colours "

There is no more common phrase used as a reproach against people in trade than that of " commercial mortality." Yet, if we may judge from the Taranaki Herald, the " gentle and honest " butter maker is not quite so pure as he has been represented by the poets. Of course everybody in the colony knows that butter is the staple export of Taranaki, and therefore that the welfare of the whole of that community depends absolutely on the goodrepute of the article produced. Yet. with that knowledge before them we find that a few, whose moral perceptions are not so keen as they might be, have attempted to ruin the whole trade while they make a miserable profit by dishonesty. One contemporary says : — We saw an instance only on Saturday last in Mr Cock's establishment where an attempt was made to pass off salt for butter. Mr Cock has men on his premises whose duty it is to open every cask that comes into his store, and we were shown a keg on the top of which was four inches of salt over the butter. Mr I Cock tells us he has had kegs of butter sent in to him with salt round the sides an inch thick, and they escaped detection till reaching Home, when he had to bear the loss through the fraud, because whilst he has paid the full price for the butter, he has got salt for his money. We understand that Mr N. King, and the Co-operative Store have had this dishonest trick j tried on them more than once, and to | preventbeingdefrauded they have competent men to open every cask and hoop them up again after inspecting what their contents were like. The I keg of butter and salt shown us on Saturday had the name of a good brand on it, and the word " separator" written across the head. Of course a buyer will lose all confidence in a person who sends in butter packed like we have described, and may not care to deal with him again, but the man will go to another butter buyer and will serve him in a like manner. In our opinion the guilty persons ought to have been sued for the difference between the value of the butter and the value of the salt, and thus made an example of to warn other evil doers. We all know that the flax trade was ruined by the bad quality of the fibre which was shipped to foreign markets as " first class," when on examination at its destination the bales were found to contain most inferior stuff, incapable of being classed at all. There is now an exposure in the South Island of an attempt to get top prices for inferior wool by packing the fleeces in such a way that only the best appeared at the top or bottom of the bales, in order that the intending buyer should be deceived into giving a higher rate than the average contents of the bales justified. Here the "gentle shepherd " played his modest part. AprnpoH of this, in the good old days it was the custom to roll the fleeces as they were taken from the sheeps' backs I and tie them up with strips of flax leaf before placing them in the bales for shipment. Flax was worth nothing, but wool was very valuable, therefore the more the flax, the more the profit. .But at last a London merchant to whom a lot of this wool was consigned, had all the flax slips collected, weighed, and shipped back to New Zealand. He charged for the freight Home, the value as against thy wool, the freight to New Zealand

and all incidental costs, making a very respectable sum, which the sheepfarmer in New Zealand paid without a murmur. He accepted the experience, and altered his system of packing his wool. These few instances will prove to a demonstration that IJ commercial mortality" is not confined to those who are classed as traders, but the " trail of the serpent j is over us all." The main evil from this dishonesty is that the whole colony suffers in order that a few rogues may gain a few pence by dishonesty. It has been suggested that inspectors should be appointed at the various shipping ports to overhaul the exports, but this plan would not be successful while it would unnecessarily multiply Government officials. The best inspectors are the buyers. They may be deceived once, but no more, and produce of any brand known to be fraudulent, is certain to be avoided.