PUBLIC OPINION.

Patea Mail, 23 August 1882, Page 3

PUBLIC OPINION.

Contributions, Letters, Inquiries and Answees thereto, are invited on Farming. Commerce, Politics, and matters of interest to the Patea district. Names of writers need not be Printed. BUZZING AROUND. A letter has been shown to me which rather fetched my bristles up. I am therein accused of “ buzzing around all that is manly and undefiled,” until I find “ a carrion spot,” and having found it, what do I do with it ? I “ draw on my imagination,” and in doing so I “ gorge myself to death.” That’s me. Mr Mace says so ; and Mr Mace is “ an honorable man.” (Shakespeare —a-hem !) This is how I buzzed. Being a member of a building society, I buzzed around the manager, who is “ all that is manly 7 and undefiled ;” and I went on buzzing until, as Mr Mace truly says, I found a “ carrion spot.” Yes, I spotted £4OO of carrion ; and instead of gorging myself to death with it, as Mr Mace would have done, I am still “ buzzing around all that is manly and undefiled ” (a new name for our manager) to see how many more “ carrion spots ” I can find. A Buzzing Membek. *— ■ “ HE SELLS BY AUCTION." My dear friend Mr Mace has fallen foul of a draper who also is dear, though he protests he is cheap. Mr Mace dislikes the draper, because the draper dislikes the other fellow, because the other fellow “ sells by auction,” and does Saturday afternoon financing. Well now, it is not so long since I heard my dear friend Mace railing and flouting and sneering at a rival of his, because that rival had the impudence to tender for a bank contract, and took it against all comers. The offence consisted in this ; the successful rival was not a carpenter, nor a regular contractor, and therefore ought not to presume to cut into another tradesman’s business. The result of that* contract was a heavy loss ; •and here I agree with Mr Mace that it serves the ignorant contractor right. He interfered with legitimate trade by trying to do work below cost price. That is Just what the draper complained of the auctioneer doing—selling, draperies by auction under cost price, and injuring legitimate business. I, as another trader' think the complaint is just ; and I do what Mr Mace did in a similar case, I protest it

is a shame that an injurious practice of this kind should be tolerated, and he called respectable. The other fellow dabbles in every kind of business, and injures legitimate trade all round. Every tradesman in the place is injured sooner or later by the practice. He has been lately dabbling in the newspaper business, and a nice financial mess he is making of it. Now be has gone into brick-making ; and he talks of getting a big contract for tiles required in the borough sewerage. What will be be at next ? Patea Trader.