WAR AND COMMERCE.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 319, 21 May 1894, Page 2

WAR AND COMMERCE.

TO THK EDITOH OF TUX STAR. Sir, —l beg that you will indulge me with brief space for my final reply to Mr Wilks. I have to thank that gentleman for his unwitting aid in helping me to prove my case. His suppositious illustration, wherein a misguided Apiti farmer impoverishes himself in order to provide the local " sports " with fun, over which he circulates £1000 in his district as a result of his declaration of war upon the feathered or other denizens ot the wood and field, is better than anything I have been able to advance. It is, in effect, the view I have expressed, but with a decidedly local and peculiarly practical application. Mr Wilks did not see that every citizen of Apiti would be enriched solely at the expense of one of their nunibor —my argument exactly — benefiting the many at the expense of the few. Oh, that a few of our capitalists were of the self-sacrificing type of Mr Wilks' creation ! Money would soon flow around like water. My friend tenders certain advice to the local stock-raisers, which it is to be hoped they will duly follow —if it is the remedy Mr Wilks claims it to be for the present depressed market; but he might have gone further. The subject under discussion is world wide in its application, and the logical conclusion is that if the present bad times in the Manawatu .are due to the unwisdom of its farmers, the whole civilised world is also suffering from a similar complaint. This district may be relieved by following Mr Wilks' prescription, but what of the ;| barbarians beyond Thessalonica," who are yet without a physician ? Seriously though, and in conclusion, I have to thank your correspondent (who, I regret, is quite unknown to me) for his pleasant and courteous notice of my unworthy effort; for that reason I trust that in thus shooting my arrow over mine house I have not " hurt my brother." I am, &c, The Contributor.