Farmer's Returns.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 8 January 1891, Page 2

Farmer's Returns.

♦■ ... Time after time do we hear a tale of low prices being obtained by our farmers for their produce* whilst the market quotations keep high. Why is this ? Farmers are the kind of men who think too well of their fellow man, und trust him too implicitly. One dairyman proves the wanted exception, as according to the " New Zealand Times " The following story is being circulated freely in Palmerston North : — A well-known former, real* dent in that district who was in the habit of exporting butter, the returns for which were anything but satisfac* tory, decided that something must be wrong, so with the idea of unravelling the mystery, he placed in the middle of a keg a small bottle containing a note asking the buyer as a personal favour to write and tell him the price he paid for the butter. The letter has just .arrived, and the result is rather a surprise, The finder of the bottle says he paid lid per 1b for the butter, The exporter on the other hand says he only received 4£d net for it, and what troubles him now is where on earth the difference has t gone to." We trust that no effort will be spared to discover the appro, priator of the sixpence halfpenny. It appears to be a duty to the State that this knowing butter exporter should publish without fear or favour j the whole of his transactions that have ended so unexpectedly. Until our friends struggling on the land, take steps to help themselves, so long will they allow the middleman to fatten on their exertions,