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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1151, 19 September 1882, Page 2

However Poverty Bay may have deserved a portion of tho opprobrium brought upon it by loose and discreditable transactions, it certainly is undeserving of a great deal which is so undeservedly attached to it. One glaring instance has been brought under our notice. There is, at presant, a great deal of inferior grass-seed being offered for sale in southern markets, and also in Auckland, and it is all characterised as Poverty Bay grass seed. How such statements as these are calculated to injure the reputation of the district, and depreciate the value of its produce must be evident to all persons ; more especially to those whose vocation in life may make the dealing in such produce a matter of every-day occurrence. A circumstance was brought before us the other day which is deserving of notice, illustrating as it does the relationship of the local productions in grass-seeds, to the southern market. A well-known firm in Gisborne, and another well-known firm carrying on business not far from the town, had bought Urge quuntitiuß of seed, and gone to great expense iu cleaning it. An order from a Targe Southern firm came into the market, in compliance with which the Gisborne firms sold, ono twelve hundred bags, and the other six hundred bags, delivered on board, sending by post a four-ounce packet as a sample. The Southern firm received the seed, and wrote up to stop the order, saying that the four-ounce packet convinced them that the bulk was not according to sample, as far as the weight went. . (They must have been mighty accurate in their calculations to judge such large shipments by such small samples.) They went on to state that Poverty Bay grass seed was a drUg on tho market, owing to its inferior quality, and that they could purchase any quantity of Poverty Bay seed in the Auckland market at a less price than iu Poverty Bay, and gave the sellers tho option of reducing the price or having the seed re-shipped at their own risk. What course the sellers have elected to pursue we know not, but we know that some one ought to take the bull by the horns, and afford positive contradiction to their mischievous statements, which are already striking a heavy blow at a staple export of the district. It is bad enough to have to bear the burden of the sins we must confess to, without suffering from the cunning and unscrupulous efforts of Southern dealers to rig the !iibik€t.