Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, AUG. 18, 1898. The Indignation Meeting.

Manawatu Herald, 13 August 1898, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, AUG. 18, 1898. The Indignation Meeting.

The inhabitants of the district are to be congratulated on the very wise endorsement they gave to the agitation for the conservation of the flax oa the Motoa estate, by attending the meeting on Tuesday night in such numbers. If the Government can be roused to take action to secure permanent labour to the hands employed in flax-milling in this district, it will be from the people having shown in so marked a manner their intense interest in this action. The green leaf being allowed to grow ia of much more importance than if the crop was that staple of life— wheat, aa it is an tri-annually recurring crop, grown without labour, and yielding, when reaped, larger profits both to the grower and the buyer. The initial objection to attending to the request of the millers has been the idea that flax is but a speculative business and has no assured continuance. Whenever a trade assumes extraordinary proportions there are always speculators ready to jump in and either start in the same industry or else buy up the product in the hope of making an unearned profit. This cannot be helped and so the same course has been pursued in the flax trade. The first mill for dress ing flax was erected in Foxton in the year 1868, because of the quantity of the green flax in tbe neighbourhood and the facilities offered by the river for carriage. We know at tbat tim* mills were erected in all sorts of ridiculous places, and owing to bad management and bad machinery the whole business practically fell through. The flax trade obtained another start again in the year 1889, and the reason why it did so is tho lesson oi experience which we desire to bring home. Though the large output of flax ceased within a year or so of its first start in 1869 one or two millers who worked their plnnt with waterpower, Mr Rutherford of Nelson, as an instance, kept regularly turning out small quantities which kept the fact of this fibre being obtainable when wanted before the Home manufaoturers. A great many of these small mills have worked their flax fields out, and it thus becomes almost a colonial necessity to husband the supply of green flax in positions where it can be worked economically, so that millers may be still encouraged to go on producing the dressed fibre when prices fall again. Thus the agitation for the conservation of flax on the Motoa estate is a matter not only of very great importance to Foxton, but is almost of as much importance to the colony. The mills in Foxton using the flax from the Motoa estate have (at least two of them) worked regularly sinoe the year 1889, and have therefore proved beyond question that given a fair flax field within convenient reach, the rent for such land will continue to be obtainable, and thus the request of tbe millers is backed up by their expeii ence and their acts and is removed altogether from the imagimative theories as to whether there will be a demand for the leaf or not. The Lands for Settlements Act is a proof that the Government profess their desire to encourage close settle ment of the land, even when tbe land hardly offers much temptation that way, as it suggests the exchanging of high lands for low lands, wet lands for dry lands and so on. Therefore it has entered into tbe minds of i Ministers that a population is net ! likely to become cloiely settled on

very wet lands. Some time ago the ••ettlers here were anxious that thf M-*to-v estate should be subdivided f>r c-bse settlement, but the Lund Porc'-.ase Commissioners condemned the p oposals on account of thia area of w t land, on which the flix igrow'ag, being unsuitable. To livt upon it would be impossible, but by reser .ing the flax, so that five mills wouU have sufficient raw material tokcp on working regularly —and 1000 acres bas been computed to r> the quantity — the 1000 acres of land by giving employment to these hands would equal a close settlement of four or five hundred people to tbe less than two square miles of flax land, and thus one of the objects of tbe Act could be accomplished by making the small amendment needed. Some objection has been urged at the people going to the Government with their cry instead of acting in dependency. Until the matter is fully explained there might be thought something in the suggestion. However it must be clear to all, that without the power of an Act of Parliament there is no way by which a landowner oan be made to sell land which he does not want to. If the Assets Board objected to sell this portion of their estate no private person could make them, but under The Lands for Settlement Act the Government has got that power, provided it is used in encouraging settlement. The technical difficulty lies in the fact whether it is really settling the land by letting flix grow on it. This we contend it does assure, that som.i land r. ro-irH settled if the means for em pi .yin nt of labour is secured Air a p >p'-':i km, as there can be no difference b^.ween the employees of th.; mills settling on land at Foxton and drawing the means of -their employment from the 1000 acres as it would be for them to Bettle, or live on, the area now covered with green flax at Motoa and deserting the land they occupy at Foxton. The Government wou'd have been willing to nave taken the Motoa estate under this Act if it had been reported suitable-*- or at least they said they would have been— nnd are now raising a difficulty about taking only 1000 acrea of it, which would secure more important results. Then it must be clear that dealing with private people is more costly and more oumbrous, for ac cepting for argument tbat the Assets Board would sell this 1000 acres to a private person or company, at £8 an acre, they would want 43000 cash and there would be the expense of a conveyance. Now it has been repeated time after time that men engaged in flaxmilling are the reverse of being rich men and £8000 becomes an amount which is quite beyond their united means to finance. If they bought at £8000, and were able to borrow part of the money they would have to find at least some security, and would have to give a mortgage, which would mean increased cost. At anyrate it would be extracting cash from the business of a miller, which most would find extremely inconvenient. We also doubt if the term of mortgage would be extended to suoh periods aB the Government allows for the purchase of lands on deferred payments. As we have said the Government can obtain this land whether the Assetß Board desires to sell it or not. They can then sell it on deferred payments, giving ten years to pay for it, or they can lease it at a low interest on its cost, or they can retain it and sell the flax on tithes, similarly to the manner they sell timber on Grown Lands prior to sale. In everyway then it will be seen the ! millers are bound to seek the help of the Government in this matter, and that tbat assistance should be withheld seems hardly possible to be lieve.

A meeting of the committee of the Manawatu Rowing Club will be held to-night to consider the question of a new boatshed. The Horowhenua County Council follow in the wake of the Manawatu County Council, and decline incurring further expense in the matter of the Wirokino Bridge until the subsidy is assured. This amounts to the plain speaking of the representatives of those districts that something more than a promise from Ministers of the Crown is required. It is a disastrous estimate to form of our public men, but they have only themselves to blame for this justifiable distrust. The Agricultural Committee recommends the establishment of national wheat stores, and suggests the appointment of a Royal Commission to make early and exhaustive inquiries relative to the national food supply in the event of war. In connection with the peace negotiations, the Spaniards talk of claiming .he remains of Columbus, which are interred in the Havana Cathedral. A leaflet distributed by the Department of Agriculture shows that during the month of July there were goscwt of butter, i6g3cwt cheese, s_7icwt frozen meat, 129,671 carcases of frozen mutton, and 82,422 carcases of frozen lamb exported trom the colony. The total estimated value was £114,046. A man, whose name is believed to be Howell, at present in charge of the Mangamairo School near Pahiatua, attempted to commit suicide by cuting his throat. He did not return to school after lunch, and a search being made he was found with his throat cut. It is not yet known whether his injuries will prove fatal. I It is reported that Mr Letter's loss I over his unsuccessful wheat corner was £1,300,000.

At the instance of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, Lord Charles Beresford goes to China immediately to report on the prospects of trade and commerce, and especially to ascertain the extent to which the Chinese Government is able to guarantee the safe employment of British capital in the interior. " St. James' Gazette " states that the Hon G. N. Curzon, Parliamentary Secretary to the Foreign Office (who is heir to the Peerage of Scarsdale) will succeed the Earl of Elgin as Governor-General of India. Chips from the huge block of talk at the Master Builders' Conference last night : — On the Workers' Compensation for Accidents Bill : •• The whole thing is to throw everything into the hands of the Government." Wages Protection Bill : •• I don't think is is necessary at all in this colony. It is simply a check on trade." "It is a wonder they don't make us place kapoc mattresses under every scaffolding erected." Master and Apprentice Bill : " Very few boys get a chance at all now-a-days to learn a trade. As soon as they commence to get high wages they are put into something else." " Are any of the employe; better off for all this legislation?" asked one member, and there came a chorus of replies, " None of mine are." — Post-Two-thirds of all the letters which pass through the post-officers of the world are written by and sent to people who speak English. If a member of the Russian Imperial family lives outside the country for more than a quarter of the year, his income is cut down very considerably! Mr J. R. Stansell is the proprietor of a new flaxmill which he is erecting at Waikanae, on a site where a sawmill formerly stood. Mr Stansell expects . to have the everything in readiness for a start in two or three week's time, and we wish him success in his new venture. The advertisement about cows for sale has been withdrawn, owing to the two having been at once sold. There were seven or eight would-be purchasers after them. night Mr William James Brown, late custodian of the Public Library, passed away at his house in Thynne - street. He had been in failing health for some time, and had been an inmate of the Palmerston Hospital. He was only 52 years of age. The next English and European mail via San Francisco will close at the local office on Wednesday, the 31st day of August, at 3 p.m. We regret to learn that Mr McQueen, our Town Clerk, has handed In his resignation to the Mayor. We understand that he wishes to leave by the nth October. This decision of Mr McQueen will be received with general regret, as during the time he has held office he has proved to be an excellent public officer and a popular private citizen. The annual meeting of members of the Foxton Tennis Club is convened for next Wednesday, 17th inst., at the Masonic Hall at 7.30 p.m. A lad named Ormond Bowater is supposed to have been drowned in the Rangitikei river while returning fi*om church at Sandon on Sunday night. Five negroes have been lynched at Clarendon, Arkansas, for murdering a storekeeper at his wife's instigation. The latter committed suicide. The German newspapers are protesting against what they term the grabbing policy of the United States in annexing Hawaii and the island of Tutuila. The Pope is suffering from an ininternal chill, and his condition is reported to be serious. The barque Coromandel, which has been submerged on the northern side of the Railway Wharf, in Wellington harbour, for over two years, was successfully floated on Thursday. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited, Wellington, has received the following cable message from its London house, dated 10th instant: — Frozen meat — Mutton market steady. Canterbury mutton is worth 3£d per lb; Southland, 3id per lb ; Wellington, 2gd per lb. Lamb market firm. Canterbury lamb is worth 4_d per lb. New Zealand hemp—Market unchanged. Quotations nominal. At the meeting of the Palmerston Hospital Board on Thursday a letter was read Alfred Fraser, forwarding a cheque for £43 9s as a donation to the funds of the Board. — Received with thanks.