WAIKATO NOTES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 246, 30 March 1910, Page 5

WAIKATO NOTES.

In the beginning let me deplore the manner in which mere men are provided for in our local restaurants. Without being a connisseur (having been.reared on plain bread and dripping in my infant days), I know still enough of eating to believe that the of a man is not altogether a subject to conjure with. Let me state that I have no time for the gourmand palate must be tickled with capon and bread sauce, or who refuses to eat roast mutton without red cur- ' rant jelly, or who shrieks loudly for olives as a preliminary canter to a twelve-course dinner a la carte. Indeed, no, I being an ordinary mortal to whom big dinners are anathema. But while I dearly love an al fresco lunch, I abhor al fresco cooking, the refore I take this opportunity of protesting vigorously at the melancholy pie and the stodgy bun —the phrase is borrowed, by the way—which is alleged and supposed to do duty as a meal in Hamilton public eating houses. Ido not blame the proprietors. Naturally they provide tha food for which there is the greatest demand. I only pity what may be termed the New Zealand taste. It is a bad taste; there is no health in it. Neither will there be any health in us if we much longer have to put up with it. The. stomach is an organ that should be treated with respect without becoming a slave to it. To indulge in the pie-and-bun system, together with the iced cakes and the ruinous tea, is inviting indigestion at a rate that one becomes, ere the mantl". of old age has fallen on one, a mere dyspeptic. From such a calamity, dear Lord, deliver us. Spare us the melancholy pie and the stodgy bun.

Just now gas consumers and Borough Councillors are suffering from the effects of the thunderbolt hurled in their midst by that august body, the Privy Council, having upset the verdict of the New Zealand Courts in the appeal case brought by the Gas Company against the Borough Council. Of the relative virtues and many aspects of this question, I do not think' that the good people who read this column care the proverbial "cuss" for our municipal affairs. But there i-4 one point which should serve as a lesson to your own townspeople when the time comes for you to decide a similar point, and that is to religiously refuse to allow a franchise, either for gas, or anything else, to go to a private company or syndicate, without provision being made at the outset for a stated price at which the rights shall revert to the borough and provision that no goodwill shall bo paid, for I can quite believe that this expression will not find favour with all who read it. To those I say this: Come and live in Hamilton and burn gas and then pay for it. lam a fairly large gas consumer for a private citizen. I am often to be found burning the midnight gas when my neighbour? are snug in the blankets. The police and night watchman have * told ma on occaisons that my front windows might well be mistaken for a lighthouse so far as the regularity with which they are illuminated is concerned. The price I pay for it often causes me tears and swears. After I have bought a month's gas and the usual firing, I have but little left to keep the safe stocked, my family decently clothed, and the rent collector from seizing, what furniture I possess. This is not a particularly "bright picture, but I believe that I am hot alone in my plight. If gas were a reasonable figure, X would be better able tolive. So that I say with emphasis to those who read this: Don't put a rod in pickle for your own backs by allowing a private concern to sell you at its own price what should be a co-operative movement on the part of the community ot any town however small. If there are any profits the burgesses should reap the benefit. They should not, I calculate, go into r the pockets of a few shareholders. That, to my mind, is not municipal enterprise. I met the advance guard of a Taranaki syndicate the other , day. He was not particularly communicative, but from a brief conversation I learned that there is a movement on foot on the part of a number of men from that province to purchase some large estates in Waikatoand the Thames Valley and, having divided them, place a number of small farmers on them

whose first duty will be to engage in dairying. The gentleman I was speaki lug to was particularly pronounced on several Waikato landholders who refused (he stated) to listen to terms but wanted cash down even at a lower price per acre. Personally lam unable to say whether this was so, but I do know that , my inforjmant went to the Thames Valley in the hope of seeing if holders of land there were more easily dealt with. What's the syndicate's method of working or how they derive their profits i? to me unknown. I could not get this information although I was particularly anxious to know. I believe that large owners of suitable land in this or any other district might with advantage to themselves and the country generally subrdiyide their estates for the purpose pf putting small farmers o? a right stamp on them. There is, of course, 3 disposition to sell at a price right out and so save the trouble of collecting rates. It is too much to expect just yet, that such farm colonies should not be co-operative. I believe that the time will come when the advantages of such a system will be recognised, and I care not whether the Government or the private person be the owner of the land, if reasonable precaution against rack renting is taken. The main point is to get all the land in the country put to profitable use. So long as a man holds an acreage in compliance with the Act he is not absolutely forced to make it all productive, although it is to his best interest to do so. If he sub-Jet it in suitable argag the yield would be a mucli greater one than even if he had it all employed himself. Many hands make light work and incidentally bigger profits. The small farmers could pay off the value of their section by easy instalments and things should go as merrily as a marriage bell. To ensure the success of this scheme we , need patriot"?. Most people are on}y when it sriits their own po6kets. f Patriots, after all, are born, pot made.