WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 September 1924, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

IN l> IS( ’ lUMIXATJi CR El)lT. (Special Co “Guardian”.) AVELLIXGTOX, Sept. Vi. M any shopkeepers bring tnnilile upon ihemselves" and others hy their loose system of giving credit to all and sundry. A man has lad to tell a plausible story and lie* is granted credit without any effort being made to verify the statements. 'lbis -.object cropjied up in the Supreme Court a feiv days ago when a prisoner wa< up for sentence for securing credit by false pretences. When the prisoner appeared in the dock his counsel took occasion to preach a homily on the prevalence of indiscriminate credit, lie silitl it seemed strange that credit should have been given to a ttiali like the prisoner. Iltisiness men who gave credit so readily, as some of them did nowadays, were more of a hindrance than a help to the community. People lived beyond tlieir incomes ns a result ot the ease with width they obtained credit, and the continued giving of credit to all and sundry was a deterrent to thrill. All this is. of course, (rue Oiiougli, hut it does not help in the least. Business cannot he carried on without credit, and prolmhlv every day in every large city many thousands of pounds Worth ol business is done on credit. But legitimate credit and indiscriminate credit are two dillerent things and there is some consolation in the fact that those who practice the latter stiller most. It is amazing lmw some shopkeepers fall lo the plausible pleadings of stiliie of those who make a business. of false pretences. Some wars ago a .Maori girl quite systematically llecced a number of shopkeepers by claiming relationship with important .Maori chiefs. She played the same trick with some success in several towns. A gund many years ago an ex-convict with line address and pleasing manners posed as a relative of a British baronet win* was then a

leading prohibitionist, lie played the part so splendidly that lie was "take’' up’’ by several influential citizens, taken to clubs an.l generally hissed over, lie borrowed livers ami tenners from his patrons and then quietly hided out of sight. Si'KCELATION IX BETTER.

Business people here are amused with the statements made by Mr W. Grounds, Chairman of the Xew Zealand Dairy Control Board, alleged to have been made by him to a representative of the • Daily -Mail.’* lie is reported to have said that Xew /.calami butter and cheese would he delivered to the British consumer by more direct channels, reducing the price and eliminating sneeulatioii. 'lbis is regarded as a very large order and one that the Board will he tillable to carry out. How is speculation to be stopped? .‘'peculation is inevitable when commodities are transported great distances when they have to pass through many hands while moving from producer to consumer. Somebody must

take the risks and if the middleman does not do so then the producer must, ami as he is not so clever at the game as the middleman he is hound to lose. It is the Board’s liusiness to slop llie speculation, observed .Mr Grounds, and people are wondering what special powers the Board possesses to achieve success in this direction. It was stated hy those advocating the formation of a Board that the present channels are to he used for reaching the consumer. Mr Grounds probably knows a good deal about Inti ter. but lie is a novice as to the marketing and distribution and he talks in a. big way because lie is temporarily in an executive position on tlie Board. It is generally regarded as a great mistake to antagonise those who have been handling Xew Zealand butler for the past fifteen or twenty years. What real grounds are there lor complaint? Llie industry luts progressed beyond thi n iI»11■ -1. >li• .'in ..| 11" pin"' ci . !’i '• r-

have been cell-I -lent K g,""d and p-iiiiiii era live otherwise the output would never have expanded as it has done, nor would dairying land have reached tlie fancy prices at which it stands today. AA'hat is wrong with the dairy industry? The most genuine complaints that have been made in recent years have been in respect to quality and those complaints have been made by th" distributors and endorsed h.v the Dairying Division of the Department of Agriculture and elforls are being made now to with res] Ito the distribution of New Zealand dairy pro-1 rime in the terminal markets are bas-

('ll on inadequate or inaccurate information. In s.|>iLc* of till the aglta-

I ion, adverse comments anil cril ic• i>t ns tlm basic fait remains tliat till' dairy inilustry lias grown anil expanded until it lias become the main inilustry nf thi' country. The reforms anil iniliroveinents needed are needed here. We need improvement in the herds and higher quality in the products. .Messrs (Iroiinds and Co. are preaching the gospel of discontent instead of the gospel of “net hiisv.”