THISTLEDOWN.

Te Aroha News, Volume XII, Issue 1758, 10 August 1895, Page 2

THISTLEDOWN.

"A man may jest and tell the truth.” —Horace.

A certain gentleman with.a lop-sided brain (Parliamentary language for lunatic) has lately been threatening men -with dire penalties and treating me with rough language as ah advocate of Messrs Reynolds interest. Anyone who has not an Bth by Bth team in his eye can see clearly that I have stediously taken the settlers’ part, and despite the opinion of . the old man in the moon I venture to offer certain suggestions to milk suppliere again. As far aa I 'Understand the firm’s offer it amounts to 2Jd per gallon for full-milk provided butter reaches IGOs per cwt at Home subject to a keep-back of id per gallon ■ until efech mpQtb'a. sale accounts are to hand, eabh •rise or fail of 2s par cwt to carry with it a difference of £th of a penny per gallon of milk. Aa I havo shown before, I believe the road solution'of the difficulty lies in cooperation, but I am sorry to aay that I hardly think the Te Aroha West suppliers could' combine; there is too much of the hush lawyer element about them. The next best thing to co-operation is profitsharing, and hero I ain at once confronted with the question, 'You must then advocate an acceptance .of .Messrs Reynolds’ terms if you think their standard price is .fair?’ Ido think it reasonable, yet I demur to suppliers accepting the proposals as a whole. Personally, 1 should insist oh 2£d per gallon as a minimum and should be willing to let that etand for two years on the understanding that I should have half of any further profit based on increased prices during the next three years. Twopence ha’penny per gallon for milk means about sixpence 'farthing par pound for bptter, and if Messrs Reynolds can't butter pay all other charges and a profit oh that stand point the sooner they devote their energies to some -other - system ihf 1 labour the better; Leaving put of question altogether the justice of the halfpenny retention they talk* of, any one who mixes with people knows perfectly well that nine out Of ten would never believe the final adjustment of .thoise eigths was fair, though" arithmetic, might prove jit. I have constantly contended,that there, was no intentional dishonesty-in the milk tests , of last season, but froja what I know I can’t help feeling sura that there /was a leakage either of or of eommoj .sense in (those tests- People much higher above the reach .of suspicion than the British merchant, in 'whose order, Mr Reynolds classes himself, ‘managed with a churn to make 25 per cant more butter on their Sunday’s milk than the separator was supposed to show for the “week day. I don’t know whether Mr Reynolds is a Sabbatarian or not; but if he is he must first either admit his testa or procedure wrong, or else considerably extend the principle ‘ The better the day, the better the deed.’ ,

The honorable member for New Plymouth poses as a friend of the unemployed. I should, therefore, like to know if he has yet resigned his position as lamp-lighter to his constituency: Getting as he does <£24o per annum; uriattachable ever for his tucker , he might let one of the unemployed earn a few shillings lighting the Taranaki lamps. Yet I have seen his application to the Borough Council for leave for his son to do the illuminating business in his place. His return for New Plymouth was probably due to a wish to give his lighting propensities a.new and extended Bphere, but so far without success. If there be a ‘Black Hole’ in the universe it is our colonial accounts. One would fancy a nation's accounts were, if anything,: oasior 'to keep than a country storekeeper’s, yet; the latter can. get six month's hard for what the former aims at. We are told the present Government collar the Sinking Funds; we were told the same by the Opposition in Atkinson’s days though Mr Mitchelaon how says no. Others said no. I have read pretty well everything they said on the subject, and I believe they did, but why can’t our accounts be such as a country Court judge would pass ? I fancy I know something of figures and accountancy yet I’ll be hanged if I’ve been able to make head or tail of our national accounts for the past thirteen years. a 9 «- #

The Legislative Council has chucked out the Deceased Husband Brother’s Bill. Logically, of course, they are altogether wrong, as if a man can marry his dead wife’s sister, there is no reason why a woman' should not marry her dead husband’s brother. All the same. I congratulate New Zealand on having, v ‘ Lords ’ with a sense of decency. Of all the most abominable ideas, most utterly revolting to any sense of decency, that of marrying your wife’s sister is the lowest. I have, thank God, a large sympathy with other men’s ideas even when diametrically opposed to my own, but here I neither can nor wish to see my mistake. ...I’m no straitlaced moralist but I draw the line at incest. lapyx.