The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1917. THE PUKEKOHE BANQUET.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 11 July 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1917. THE PUKEKOHE BANQUET.

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

Since the Hon. Mr. Massey’s return from England this country has been turned into a veritable fairy palace. Prior to his return ,our producers viewed with dismay their congested freezing works, their butter was decaying in cool stores, and tons of their cheese had to be destroyed as unfit for use, and all because there was not a ship available to take it to where it was so urgently needed. Under the exhilaration of a public banquet, the oracle is consulted, and with a “quick change and be gone,” sixty thousand boxes of butter are on their road to England'. Mr. Massey waves a wand and a fleet of ships is to appear to relieve the congestion of our freezing works and to leave ample room for next year’s killing. He lifts the lid of a magic urn and 10, and behold, there comes to view a British Government clamouring for all the cheese we can produce, at an exceptionally good figure. Mr. Massey warns the cheesemen, however, that they must not be too over-reaching or the good fairy will become displeased and drop them. The pity of it is that he cannot deal with shipowners in a, similar spirit. Pukekohe has brought to light a man with a veritable Pandora’s Box, and if they persist in the banquet business goodness only knows what may come next. Mr. Massey" told his Pukekohe friends that he had personally made himsglf responsible for the immediate shipping of sixty thousand boxes of butter. He did not know whether the British Government would put him in gaol for this, but he was prepared to take the risk. We do wish the Prime Minister would treat the producers of this country with greater consideration, and credit them with having, at least, an ordinary intelligence. Surely Mr. Massey is not really asking us to believe that he personally, without any collusion with shipowners, has the power to say what the shipping trust’s vessels shall carry or where they shall load. If he insists upon the possession of such right to dictate, people will be saying that his connection with shipping warrants the commandeering of space for a few thousand carcases of wether mutton, and, at least, sufficient space to obviate cheese being destroyed. We begin to think that the people of this land were very short-sighted in letting a Miniscter with such power to command shipping ever leave their shores for Great Britain. While he was away our shipping arrangements all went topsy-turvy, and he came back just in time to see the last ship this country had any interest in handed over to the Trust, indeed, it Ts difficult to conjecture what plight we should have drifted into had he stay-

ed a little longer. If the Honourable Gentleman will only go on “Bossing” the shipping business on the lines adopted at the Pukekohe banquet, -he will earn the undying gratitude of every man and woman in this isolated little country. With the slump in butter and the deterioration of produce in packed stores we began to think that “God’s Own Country” had been forgotten by its owner. Now we learn that, while things look their blackest, a guardian angel has appeared and the clouds vanish as if by magic. No more cheese is to be destroyed, the British Government will give a good price for it; shipping would improve during the next three months, but there is a fly in this shipping ointment. He says if what he promised was carried out, the shipping position for next season would be practically met. What a pity the structure of the whole shipping statement has an “if” bomb under it that may burst at any time and blow it and Mr. Massey to smithereens. The British Government is let down very lightly for taking ships from the New Zealand trade and using them for the benefit of countries not in the Umpire, and even of questionable friendship. Mr. Massey admits that Britain, or the shipping trust, or somebody, did this. If if was the British Government we can only regard it as base ingratitude. Ships are forthcoming to carry our sons to the battlefields of Europe, Asia and Africa; it might reasonably be hoped that our produce would not be left on our hands to rot. However, Mr. Massey has returned, has disclosed what he had up his sleeve, putting a bit of shine on our producing future. Discussing the post-war outlook, he prophesied a prosperous timg; he believed the high prices of meat, butter and cheese would continue after the war, but he saw disaster ahead if producers did not raise a good deal more for export. He pointed out that this country was saddling itself with an awful-looking debt, and that taxation would have to increase in proportion. Unless we increase production, he said, we must look forward to a time of depression. It is the ills of the future that should claim our attention now; it is all very well to flippantly talk about our good fortune, and use high falutin’ language about golden-lined promises of what might bo. We shall be wise to fake things as they actually are; we see now that ships are found to take away the best of our male population, but when it comes to our produce, ships are taken to serve' South America or some other part of the world. If the day of famine and depression is to be avoided, our meat, wool, butter, and cheese must be shipped to market, for we must have the money to pay the huge taxation that Mr. Massey foreshadows.