THE Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1879. PROPHETS OF EVIL.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 42, 17 May 1879, Page 2

THE Manawatu Times.

SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1879. PROPHETS OF EVIL.

"Wordsare things, and a drop of ink falling like dew nppn a thought, produces fchafc whiqh make*, thousands, perhaps millions think.'"

v Straws serve to show which way the i wind blows," and/there is a most sug- 1 gestive resemblance between the sneers indulged m by Mr. Councillor Sanson at the last meeting of the County Council with regard to the timber trade of the Upper District, and the utterance of his recognised organ, the Rangitikei Advocate upon the same subject. The unison of ideas and the similarity of language used m the oracular utterances .seem very good presumptive evidence that inspiration has been drawn from the same source. Mr". Sanson from his place ih the Council stated that — Manchester Riding was prospering now, owing to the heavy timber trade, but there was no guarantee that that would always last • m fact, it appeared even now to be waning. Should that take place, people m the open country would be better off than those who -lived ia a bush country, and depended upon the one commodity, Thus spake ' Mr. Sanson m the Coun-' cil. Now for the written utterances bf the Advocate : — The outlook is certainly not very cheering for those who have invested their capital m saw-mills, as it is very difficult at the present time to see where a market for the produce of twenty local mills is to be found. With the export trade cutoff, and the Wanganui market supplied from across the Strait, Where is our timber to find purchasers ? It is a very serious thing for Feilding, which of course, draws the chief of its support from its timber-revenue. If that industry should from any cause collapse, the value of property m Eeilding, and its general prosperity, must deteriorate as rapidly as their present (position was attained. A reduction of wages is m any case inevitable, which mean's a diminished circulation of money. We shall be , glad if the present crisis ends there, byt we greatly fear it will not. The closing of soiqe of the mills appears imminent, unless the proprietors make up their minds to compete at a great disadvantage, which might involye working at a loss ; and could not afford, and^ few would care to do. -* * * * Foilding would not haye fait the blow sq severely had it attained a .more adyar,ced age, and been deriving an agricultural and pastoral, as well as a To have its principal resources severely crippled, while the place , is yet m its infancy, will most certainly | seriously and directly interfere with its | otherwise rapid growth and substantial pro- 1 gress, and the effects will make themselves I felt m every branch of business, and will ] affect prejudicially the whole community, | not excluding, the railway 'department. Indications of a slightly waning confidence m tho stability of Feilding are already apparent. It was confidently expected' that two additional banks would by this time have been m business ; of these, one has withdrawn altogether, and the other shows no disposition to open the agency, the premises for the ocr enpation of which remains unoccupied. Hitherto the Advocate has constituted itself the Knight Errant of the rights bf Feilding,'. over which it had thrown the ißgis of its protection, but a change has come over the spirit of the dream of late. For a long time it « ran with the hare and hunted with the hounds " oyer ■ tbe ihatter of the West Coast -railway, but at last taxed ' with its treachery and brought to bay, it was compelled to descend from the convenient rail upon v^hich it had been perched, and elect which banner, it would fight under. It threw its lot m with Sandon, and thenoeforth, as m duty bound, it became the echo of the utterances, and the mouthpiece of the ideas, of Mr. Sanson and those of that ilk. It was not sufficient that Sandon aud Carnarvon should be glorified aud peans of triumph chaunted over their quasi progress, bufc^ contrasts should be drawn between open. and bush countriesas depreciatory of the latter as they were untrue. Figures are stubborn .things and "facts are chiels which , winna ding," and notwithstanding the hypocritioal wail of the Advocate over the supposed . decadence' of Feilding, we are prepared to prove "by the above incontestible proofs that its statement has .no foundation, and that with it il the wish was father to the thought." Referring back to our columns, we find that the revenue of the railway line for the quarter, ending September of last year was: — Total Revenue— July £1,860 „ ' „ —AugustL. 1.878 >, » —September 2,074 Total Quarter ... £5,802 Of which the following was the Feilding Revenue — July £532 „ „ —August 425 „ „ —Sept 500 T-otal Quarter . ....... .£1,477 The reyentje received from Palmer-don during the same tinie was £1,420, which added to Peildiris:, made the total of £2,897, or .exactly half the amount received from the" whole of the seventeen other' stations on the line. Of coursetour contemporary will say tb » without the figures of the past thr rt e

decadence. Granted: but fortunately we arc equal to the occasion, and present tbe required statistics for the especial edification of our desponding friend ; — -.Month ending May 3rd, 1879, £746 12 0 „ „ April sth, „ £741 11 10 „ „ March Bth, 1879 £706 7 6 „ „ Feb. 17th, 1779 £650 0 6 „ „ Jan. 11, 1879 £413 10 6 „ » Dec. 14, 1878 £440 5 1 There is something more than ground* less assertions m those figures, which we defy our assumptive friend to eontra--didt. This is father a cheej?ing kind of decadence, and ; not calculated to create much regret or alarm — save with such peculiar well-wishers as the Rangitikei Advocate. But supposing that unforturately, the facts were as that paper has stated, and that the alteration m the tariff -with regard to the importation of timber threatened ruin to that industry m Manawatu, considering that it has affected to sympathise with the progress of Peilding, its hypocritical wail yet covert sneer is scarcely m consonance with such such feelings or wishes. There can be ho doubt that the abolition of the protective duty on timber was one of the gravest mistakes of last Session— one that was not alone, detrimental to Manawatu, but actually suicidal to the prosperity of the colony at large, and had the Advocate wielded the influence which it flatters itself it possesses m condemning the injudicious action, instead of befouling the nest which it presumed to protect, we could have faith m the sincerity of its selfconstituted Protectorate. Unfortunately it has — to use a vulgar expression — put its foot m it, and the pedal ornament exhibited is of the cloven genus X