The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1916. FARMERS IN DANGER.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 23 February 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1916. FARMERS IN DANGER.

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Waimarino News).

1 ■■ <S*» No British statesman will now deny that if Germany had waited for a few more years she would have gained as thorough a victory over the British Empire as ever she could have hoped to win by the sword. Her rulers became impatient; trade invasion methods were too slow; she thought in only a few months her forty years of military preparation could whisk away any opposition that France could offer, and annihilate Britain's contemptible little army. Kvn i:i his greed, man is prone lo over-reach himself, and what applies to individual:; in this respect also applies to combines, trusts, nations and empires. German arch-plotters had the conquest of the whole world well within their range of vision, when insatiable greed caused them to bare teeth and craws and sommit the supreme folly of n hv . fcrce grab. The bravery of our people and the military clc-vxrness of c•■•. Army commanders have gii e-•

Empire a chance to get from under the trade, and the bloody claw of the Teuton beast. Whether it will emerge victorious in the full meaning of the term is yet not knowable, but there is not wanting good cause "for Our Empire was within an ace of being body and soul dependent upon Germany. It is altogether too ot??ious that the majority of the British people have been too lazy, careless or indifferent to trouble themselves about any such thought, they have gone on buying German goods, accepting tne freely given German credit, and only for overwhelming German greed they would, in only a very few years, have been entirely in German clutches, commercially, financially, and inuustrially. Empire leaders, statesmen, and thoughtful people now fully realise how near the Empire was to destruction, and it was this nearness and Germany's excessive greed that saved it; it was so near that Germany thought she had only to extend her bloody claw and seise it. What is the price the Empire has to pay for its

folly; a million of the Empire's bravest and best sons will have fallen; a million more will be maimed or have broken constitutions; another million are giving their health ill munition factories, while a million or more are suffering deprivations that must be endured till long after the German vulture is completely laid. The cost in money is counted by thousands of millions, ships by hundreds, and" the value of other lost treasure is incalculable. ,Wky has this colossal calamity overtaken the British Empire/ Because of its insane indifference and its refusal to see that Germany was tickling it with trade and credit while taking a death grip of its throat. Has Britain, and particularly New Zealand, learned the lesson, From a cable that reached us yesterday, it seems doubtful whether she ITas. Tlae life and death indus'fry of New Zealand is that by which the people of the Mother Country are largely fed and clothed. If this industry gets into alien control, whether it be German, American, or that of any other alien, we shall have lost this source of Britain's food supply; New Zealand farmers will only get just what the alien trust likes 'to allow them, and the people of England can be starved by alien owners diverting the rood they should get to other countries. The Empire is sacrificing millions of lives ancr. hundreds of millions of treasure in escaping from the threatened contror of one alien, wliileTt has every appearance of indifferently drifting into the clutches of another. The leading statesmen of Britain are taking sTeps of an initial character to stem the Meat Trust tide, but they are comparitively helpless without the cooperation of New Zealand farmers. The British Colonial Secretary was asked, in the House of Commons,

whether he was aware that the Chicago Bdef Monopoly was Dialling an effort to corner New Zealand s meat I output; whether his attention had been called to the secret operations of the meat tiust in New Zealana; and whether, seeing there was irritation and suspicion in re- ! yarding what companies are uncer J American control, he will immediately i confer with Mr. Massey, and take J steps necessary to keep this source of j Britain's food supply free from foreign I influence. The British Colonial Secretary said he was already in communication with Mr. Massey, considering what action could be taken.. There is good reason to believe that our farm- ' era have realised the danger, and all but a very few, who are so obsessed with greed that they would risk another war to get an extra shilling for a lamb, are anxious to be informed of what companies are controlled by the ; trust. It is a most remarkable situation; while it is well known that this I Chicago Beef Trust is endeavouring I to corner the New Zealand meat output, no one knows which meat companies are under its control, and all companies absolutely deny the remotest connection therewith, and some ; even threaten the full force of the law J of libel if it is said they have any such connection. It would be a unique situation to have an Alien meat trust j prosecuting one of their victims uncer i the victim's own laws; but trusts and ! Germans have no conscience, their ' object is to get possession, and Ger- | many has demonstrated that secret , : trust engineering is easier and less I costly than open war, though it takes la little longer. War is as likely to re- ' sull from American control of our nI dustries as it was from German cou- ! trol, and the present, is the time for i New Zeaiand farmers to save thoni- ; selves and their country. Thoj can j combine to insist that it shall bo in; do j known which New Zealand meat companies are under the control o\ the Chicago Trust. When that i a ;-oniplisbed th > "est will be ens-. "he success of the meat octopus lies j n the secrecy of its operation vmj] "v-w Zealand 'arnors cmv' ■ '-. i>i.-. ioe!p<l -• th t 1 evfra phi' 1 * ■ r;, 'ir ''c.ilib,-; ' '>'•'' ■ ' <■• "'i-G-.1l ■» ' ' *? : ■ t."l:?7, • t Of V: :

Mr Edwin Arthur Rule, a well-known Rangiwahia resident, died in the hospital at Palmerston North on Tuesday night as the result of a fall from a horse while rounding up cattle. A Palmerston visitor to the Masterton show on Wednesday says there were 600 motor cars in the grounds, with about 100 others outside the enclosure. A disclaimer from an Auckland paper: "Harry Wilson, milkman, of Devonport, has no connection of any kind with Woodrow Wilson, of United. States of America." Michael Hunt, farmer of Lawrence, has been apprehended as a deserter under section 12 of the Military Service Act, being-a Section 35 man. He is being sent to Trentham camp under military escort. In his replace advertisement Mr. A. Spence draws attention to specially attractive bargains obtainable at his store during the last week of his Great Summer Sale. Ladies requiring a new hat would do well to peruse the advertisement. Delegates representing fourteen different branches of the Farmers' Unions a resolution at Hamilton yesterday urging the Government to give the country a lead on the question of curtailment or cessation of racing during the currency of the war.

The strike of freezing chamber hands in the employ of the various freezingworks has been settled. The matters in dispute being referred to a committee appointed by the men and their employees. In the meantime the men are to resume work to-day.

At the meeting of the W T anganui Hospital and Charitable Aid Board yesterday, the Matron of the Taihapu Hospital reported as follows: —Patients in hospital at end of December, 12; admitted, 14; discharged, 12; deaths, 2; remaining in hospital on January 31, 12.

In reference to the rumours in the south of the shortage of sugar supplies, the Colonial Sugar Company states that full supplies are available, but delivery has been delayed owing to the shortage of steamer communication. About 1700 tons will be despatched from Auckland for southern ports before Saturday next.

Dr. Wilson, who has been on the hon. medical staff at the Wanganui Hospital, tendered his resignation at Thursday's meeting of the Hospital Board. The resignation was accepted with regret, and a motion thanking Dr. Wilson for past services was unanimously carried. Dr. Wilson has decided to join the Expeditionary Forces.

The other day a prospective appellant to the Military Service Board consulted a Wellington solicitor as to his chances of being successful in an appeal. After hearing the full statement of facts from his client, the solicitor replied that the most he could hope for was a month's exemption. The client's face was clouded for a moment; then his eye brightened, and he said: "Well, a lot of bullets can be fired in a month, anyhow." After full consideration and a conference with the men engaged in the rabbit export trade, the Government has cabled to the British Government a proposal that in addition to frozen rabbits, canned rabbits and rabbit skins should be requisitioned. This, the Hon. MacDonald, Minister in charge of the Imperial Supplies Department, points out. will enable rabbits to be obtained for the Imperial Government at a reasonable price. It will also enable the business to be conducted on a payable basis in New Zealand. The Peilding Star says:—What are the police doing about it? Palmerston is still feeling the terror by night. A ■house in Pascal Street was entered on Saturday night while the occupiera were absent and ransacked for valuables. The West End school and West End store were also entered, and a sum of money taken. Three different attempts are said to have been made to enter Mrs. Moffat's house, on Foxton line, the burglars being disturbed in the house on the third occasion by Mrs. Moffat's son. Some of these incidents have been reported to the police ,and others have not, says the Standard. A good story is going the rounds of the town at present with regard to a couple cf orchard thieves who made themselves obnoxious in a place not a hundred miles from Mangaweka. One of the fruit growers who had suffered particularly heavily from from their depredations decided to try the restraining effect of small-shot, and with that aim in view spent a recent Sunday night in his orchard with a double-barrelled shotgun for company. The thieves duly arrived, and after letting them get a good start on their picking, the owner bombard- • ■'. s a result it is rumoured that .... people find it a good deal more .-.-.)'•-);;hie to stand up than to sit " m - t any rate, so goes the tale. ;

During- show week two or three women are required for the dining room at Capill's Temperance Hotel. All Taihape solicitors' offices will be closed on Wednesday next, the Agricultural and Pastoral Show Day. A team of Taihapc bowlers left this morning for Marton in an endeavour to bring back the Hern cup to the Taihape club. The team is a good one. and consists of Messrs. Wright-son, Evans, Jan!-?, and Drayton. With ordinary good fortune this combination should prove successful. Complaints have reached the YVanganux Education Board that some teachers in die Board's employ are administering corporal punishment to girl scholars, in many cases for what should be considered trivial causes The Board is distinctly and unanimously opposed to teachers making such breaches of the regulations for which ihey are liable to prosecution.