THE CLOSING OF THE FREEZING WORKS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 20, 22 January 1913, Page 4

THE CLOSING OF THE FREEZING WORKS.

pealing with the labour difficulty in >lie meat industry, particularly as it f a fleets the South Island, the Christ--I'church ‘Press’ says:—There is no

gainsaying the fact that the closing qf the freezing works for even a fewj weeks will mean considerable loss to .farmers who have fat sheep and lambs to dispose of. It is true there is plenty of feed, but there is no profit in keeping animals on the farm when they are fat and the market is waiting for them. The lambs, oi course, will contiue to put on weight, )but if the works aro closed for any length of time there will be such a rush of stock into the yards that farmers cannot expect to receive the same prices as if they had fed the market steadily. The Joss is not to be entirely reckoned up, however, by the mere holding of fat stock, but through the consumption of feed that would otherwise go towards the fattening of further drafts. Those who have been buying store lambs and wethers for finishing off are bound to suffer. The rates ruling for store sheep lately have been very high, and (have left but little margin between store and fat value, and any interference with the fat stock market will mean a loss instead of a profit. The recent hot weather must be reckoned as an element in the feed question. The suggestion that farmers should provide men for carrying on the slaughtering is not looked upon as n practical step, as the meat has to be

well dressed to meet the requirements ot the trade, and if it were not turned out in its usual condition the sale oi the meat would be affected. Buyers at Home could not be expected to make allowance for the circumstances tha;

necessitated the employment of otho than competent slaughtermen. Ii

the advance in the slaughtering ra

were the only point in the present dif Acuity there are probably few farmers who would object to the conces sion being given. Finality, however, they would scarcely look for, in tin present state of the labour and

wages question. The advent of labou from country districts to man th works may have an effect that wil only aggravate the trouble at th<

present juncture, and the time doe; not appear to be ripe for any move raent of the kind. Strong expression: of disapproval of such a suggestion 'have already been heard among farmers.

AUSTRIA’S EMPEROR’S WORK INC DAY.

The Emperor Francis Joseph, who .although he has been working tmusu ally, hard of late, enjoys the best o: health, has.just made an alteration in his working hours, which throw; an interesting light upon his habits o life, says Dr. E. J. Dillon, ,in . tin ‘Daily Telegraph. * During the past forty years the Emperor has been ac customed to rise punctually even morning at four o’clock, and bavin; devoted one hour to the requirement: of the toilet, to sit down at his writ ing table and begin work. From thi; custom the Emperor never deviated whether he resided at Vienna or else where. Recently, however, the mon arch has added half an hour daily tc his working time. He now rises r half-past three every morning, com mences work at half-past four, and retires to rest as before at eigh o’clock sharp. In Schonbrunn Casth the windows of the apartments occu pied by the Emperor and his suite ar. wrapped in utter darkness at eigh o'clock every night, but now the lights begin to disappear in certain rooms at three, and half an hour later the whole palace wing is brilliantly illuminated. f

BACK TO BARBARISM. ' Speaking at the Eighty Club, Mr. Winston Churchill, referring to the possibility of war, said: A re sort to war between those great Em pi res, Austria and Russia, would lx a horror utterly disproportionate tc any cause which exists, and not compensated in any way by any result which could bo achieved. Christian civilisation, with her science and with her learning, with her prosperity and with her hopes, looks across the tangles of diplomacy, looks across the passions of the crowd, to the Sovereigns of those great august Empires, and asks whether kingship may not in these modern democratic days win for itself a new lustre, and may not proclaim to the multitudes of enfranchised toilers in whose hands power is increasingly reposed the fact that monarchy is a bulwark of European peace. No one can measure the consequences of a general war. The orig-

inal cause would soon be lost in the greater and more terrible issues whichwould be raised. No one can say there is any Great Power which might not be involved in such a cataclysm; no one can say there is any institution in Europe which would certainly be left standing at its close. All might bo cast into an abyss, and in a few weeks or months injury might be caused to our economic and social life which would plunge us back almost into the desolation and barbarism of the Middle Ages, and the only epitaph which history could write on such a catastrophe would be that this whole generation of men went mad and tore themselves to pieces.