A DANGEROUS MOVEMENT.

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 702, 23 December 1902, Page 1

A DANGEROUS MOVEMENT.

(Taranaki News.) For some months past a movement has boon oil loot to get the control of the whole of tho produce of dairy and other farmers into tho hands of a Woffington combination. A copy of the prospectus of this combination reached us during tho month of November, but wo hoped that Taranaki farmers were too wise to be drawn into such a clear attempt to hand themsclvos over, bound hand and foot, to Wellington monopolists, ami we did not refer to it, It appoars, however, that somo of thoso attending tho meeting of tho Taranaki branch of the Farmers’ Union in Ilawera, a few days ago, wero induced to pass a resolution favorablo to the proposal. Tho Ilawera Star gives no information regarding tho discussion, ii any, anil tho belated Press Association wire is oven more bald. We havo, howevor, the prospectus in quostion boforc us, and it leaves no doubt whatever that, under tho pretence of benofittiug tho farmer, a determined attempo is being made to establish a hugo monopoly, having its hoadquarters in Wellington. Tho prospectus is exceedingly oarefully drawn and artfully worded so as to disguise its real objects, which are undoubtedly to got the control of the whole of the dairy and other produce into the hands of and under the control of tho combination in question. The title of the concern is “Tho New Zealand Farmers’ Cooperative Distributing Company, Limited, the capital to bo DSO.OOO in shares of £1 each. Although called a distributing company the first clause of tho prospectus says: “ The company is promoted chiefly for the purpose of establishing and conducting a public produce depot in the city of Wellington for the sale therein of farm, orchard, and garden produce of all characters.” . . . We feel sure the amalgamated companies could command an attention and respect which would considerably improve thenposition. In the meantime wo would urge them to be very guarded in respect to offers of assistance from outside.

" Mr Seddon,” says the Liberty Review, 11 boasts that the New Zealanders, though numbering only SOO,OOO, have increased their deposits in the savings banks within the last ten years almost as much as the

people of the Mother Country, with its 40 millions of inhabitants. Considering that New Zealand exists principally on loans from the Mother Country, this only shows that the colonists are thrifty at other people's expense, not at their own. Mr Soddon thinks that if Great Britain can afford to spend £250,000,000 on the AngloBoer war, she can afford to spend £3,000,000 per annum on old age pensions. Wo have met this argument before, and answered it by mentioning that, apart from other objections to old ago pensions, the South African war is partly paid for, and that the interest on the balance of debt remaining will not amount to eight millions, and still less to an annual amount double eight millions, into which an old age pension scheme, if once started, would bo sure to run beforo long. The New Zealand scheme, which Mr Seddon glorifies, applies only to persons of 65 years and upwards, and various persons are excluded from its benefits—3inoug others, perhaps, those who havo not been faithful followers of Mr Seddon. Yet it

costs the colony nearly £200,000 potannum and £2500 for expenses. That such a scheme should he possiblo in a colonv so deeply in debt is a testimony to

the shortsightedness of the British investors in New Zealand debt,” The Christchurch i'ress is not at all pleased with the progress of the Cheviot railway. It states “In two-and-a-half years the Government have completed rather le~s than fifteen miles of line, carried over the easiest couutry which it is possible to imagine-—an ideal piece of couutry for railway construction. The contractors for the Soudan railway would have completed the section in fifteen days, and even the New Zealand Government ought to be positively ashamed of itself for taking more than six months over such an easy, insignificant piece of work, Wc have no" hesitation in saying that if the Cheviot railway had been cairied out ou business principles trains would havo been running into the Mackenzie township before this date. It is the political blight which paralyses railway construction in this country. The prime object which the Ministry have to view is not to make the railway, but to buy votes.