The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 13. TARANAKI: PAST AND PRESENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 54, 13 June 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 13. TARANAKI: PAST AND PRESENT.

Mr. Penn, the retiring president of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce, is to be heartily congratulated upon the very interesting address he delivered at the annual meeting on Friday evening. The address contained a great deal of valuable information, all showing the progress the province had made during the twenty-one years the Chamber has been in existence. Though Northern Taranaki was one of the earliest settled portions of New Zealand, the troubles with the Maoris considerably retarded settlement of the province. The real settlement practically dated from the seventies'. Like the rest of New Zealand, Taranaki owes a great deal of its expansion and success during the past couple of decades to the perfection of the regrigerator and the improvements in shipping facilities. Taranaki owes, too, not a little of its progress to the energy, enterprise, and determination of its pioneers, men who faced and surmounted trials and hardships unknown to the majority of the present generation. The figures quoted by Mr. Penn indicate the extent of the headway the province has made in the past twenty years. He mentioned that the pick of the Toko land was worth in 1-890 but from £1 to £2 per acre. It is now selling at £2O. We know of other land—heavy bush land it was —in South Taranaki that could have been bought in 1890 for £3 to £5 per acre. The same land is now fetching from £33 to £SO per acre. Butter was selling at only a few pence per lib, and to convey it to Wellington the Government railways charged £2 8s per ton. The charge by boat is now 12s 6d per ton. In 1890 practically no frozen meat was exported. Last year the exports were valued at £210,527. Dairy produce exports have increased from 1571 tons to 15,007 tons, valued at £1,055,539. Little or no wool was exported- in 1800; last year the export of this commodity was valued at £69,635. The total value of the exports last year amounted to £1,315,190. Taking into consideration that sent to places within the Dominion, the total value of our produce must be in the neighborhood of £1,750,000. From a population of 47,489, and from a province only partially developed as Taranaki is, the result is extremely gratifying. Much, however, remains to be doiie. Our staple industry, dairying, is still in its infancy, and those engaged in it are, as a class, only now learning the rudiments and seeing what extra returns there are to be secured (by the application of scientific principles to every department of the business and by following the example of their successful rivals in Denmark. Mr. Penn mentioned . that the tonnage of shipping at Moturoa had increased in the twenty years from 95,090 tons to 213,124 tons; and the imports from 8478 tons to 61,926 tons, and the exports. from 7544 . tons to 13,484 tons. While the increase is 'gratifying, it "is safe to say that the immediate future will isee a very much greater increase. ■All going well, ocean liners will be lying at the wharf within the next eighteen months or so, bringing a great quantity of goods, and taking away the produce, we now pay coastal freight upon, and serving a larger area of country than is now possible. The opening of the Stratford line, even the section between Toko and Te Wera, will open up and bring into profit an enormous area of splendid cattle and sheep country, and thus increase th'e trade of the port. The further subdivision of land (made necessary by the higher prices prevailing) must attract a larger population and' lead to an appreciation in the value and extent of our exports, as will the greater attention that is being paid to the allied in lustries- of the farm. Apart, however, from our farm products, the future is bright and pregnant with, possibilities, j It has been proved beyond all reasonable doubt .that petroleum exists in large quantities in Taranaki. As a matter of fact, at no time in the history of operations at Moturoa have the prospects been so encouraging as they are at present. Even if prospecting goes no further, we believe the field would prove a payable ■ one and earn substantial dividends for shareholders. But there is every likelihood of English capital being available for the further exploitation of the industry, which bids fair to become a very considerable asset, not only to Taranaki, but to the Dominion as a whole. Then we have sxtensive coal deposits within easy reach at the Mokau and in the Tangarakau; we have also kaolin deposits and ironsand in abundance —all of which, when successfully exploited, as tliev no doubt will be in the near future, must substantially increase the wealth and trade of a corner of New Zealand that Nature has been particularly kind to. It is little wonder that Bishop Sel-w-vn, on setting foot for the first time in Taranaki, recalled the verse: "The lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground: yea, T have a good heritage."

made either to reduce the sentence or to punish the judicial savage who ruined this boy's life and killed him as decisively as if he .had stricken him to the heart. England recently rose up in arms at the sentence imposed on a boy by a fiendish magistrate who ordered a boy to be flogged and sent to gaol for seven years for stealing a lump of coal. No doubt the justices who deal out these sentences are still able to hold the commission of the peace. One London justice of the peace recently protested at the extreme violence of the sentences imposed on boys, and, having protested, said he would never sit on such cases again, immediately leaving the Court and afterwards resigning his commission. The sacredness of property and the inconsequence of human life and feeling' largely rule the decisions of many men who love to exercise their power for evil. When one Judge lightens the sentence of a swindler "because of his distinguished record," and another sends a woman with a nine-weeks-old baby to gaol for three months for stealing six apples out of a peer's paddock, there is an inference that the Judge is not only a fool but a biassed knave. Judges, magistrates, and the un-1 paid variety of the latter are much too immune from the consequences of their judicial acts, and wickedly cruel acts are performed because the people have no redress. Britain is a pattern in the matter of law administration for the whole world, and, this being so, it is worth while scanning the police court reports in any large English paper to discover •tike "fairness" meted out. The disparities are heartbreaking. Not infrequently, both in Britain and in New Zealand, the .person who appears in court will depend very largely for the size of his sentence on his clothes, his manners, and his speech. There is still remembered the New Zealand case of an aristocratic murderer to whom the whole court, from magistrate to orderly, bowed and scraped and salaamed in utter subjection. But the bench did not meekly apologise to •the succeeding "drunks" for having given them the inconvenience of answertag to charges. On the whole, the disparity of some of the sentences meted out to the lowly and to the "swell" evildoer is sickening in its unfairness.

THE GREEDY BREWER,

The brewers of New Zealand constitute the most pernicious trust the Dominion knows. They are enormously powerful, frequently cruel and greedy. They control the vast majority of licensed liquor houses and the licensees. Because liquorselling is a lucrative business, there is no difficulty in obtaining licensees. The brewers, when they are in a position to do so, demand a heavy sum for the '■' goodwill," they tie the licensee to certain supplies, and before the determination of leases, they are in the habit of demanding increase rents and "good-will." The public pay. We call attention to a recent message from Hastings reporting the annual meeting of the Hawke's BayLicensing Committee, and showing that the trade is in bad odor and badly run in the district. The report very clearly thows the greedy nature of the brewers' demands. In one instance a widow, who was the licensee of a tied house, died, and her children were deprived of everything. The prohibition vote in New Zealand is largely the result of personal and general detestation of the methods of the liquor monopolists. Of course, Me people are to blame for the conditions existing, and at present only fight the monopoly at the ballot box and by means of the- wretched system of local option which steals the bread out of one mouth and feeds it into another. Years ago Mr. John Rigg, M.L.C., inI traduced his Tied Houses Bill, which aimed at a reform that was just and drastic. No methods for dealing with the brewers could be as drastic as their own methods in dealing with the public and the licensees. The Bill was by way of making it illegal for any person to own more than one hotel, of which he must be the licensee. This would Have put an end to the grasping'policy that has made the brewers the most powenticorporation for evil in New Zealand. The Bill failed. Unfortunately beer and politics sire a good deal mated in New Zealand, and it seems almost hopeless that anything will be done, unless by the demands of the people. The brewer demands a higher, price for his article than any other person dare demand for anything he sells, and because of the beer king's position, he is able to put the screw on many folk. The Premier talks airly of introducing! a Bill to kill trusts, and as the brewers' trust is the largest, most powerful and most evil of them all, it is to be hoped that the proposed law will hit it first. The true solution of the question and the humbling of the beer lords lie in State control. Under it, the fair thing would be done by me present licensees, personal and combined greed would be eliminated, the profit would go into the till of the State, and the people would probably not par sixpence lor a pennyworth of liquor. There is no need for the people of New Zealand to spread their necks for the brewers to walk on, and there is every need that the monopolists should be dealt with as severely as they deal with ike public and the publican.

NEW ZEALAND APPLES IN LONDON. The shipment of New Zealand apples sent to London by the Paparoa does not seem to have .been a marked success, though probably the prices realised are sufficient to recoup the consignors for the expenses incurred. The fruit arrived in the London market "somewhat wastv and over-ripe," and the prices ranged from 6s to 10s a ease. There can be very little doubt, however, that the success of the export trade in fruit grown in New Zealand and Australia is a ma.t6er of careful selection, proper packing and cold storage on board the steamers. LaSt January an Adelaide grower sent an experimental shipment of one hundred cases of .pears to London by the Orvieto. The. fruit was of the soft varieties, such as Bon Chretien and Beurre Rose, and in the past it has been considered impossible to export these pairs on account of the loss of condition and flavor during the voyage. The cases were stored in a special chamber ,at >a temperature of 33 (leg. Fahr., and arrived in excellent condition. The grower has received information that his profit will amount to about 7s Gd a case. The picked pears were sold in packages containing ten dozen at 19s a package, and cases of secon* quality brought Wis each, 'although pears from other countries were in the market in'' large quantities. Australian growers now propose to send regular shipments of soft fruits next season, with a. view to developing a profitable trade. The experts state that the price of fruit in the large cities of Europe i and America at certain seasons am.plv covers risks and freight charges, and these sea=ons correspond to the periods of plenty in the Commonwealth and New Zealand. Some Victorian growers cherish memories of a shipment of soft fruit they sent to New. York two seasons ago. The consignment arrived in a more or less damaged condition, but the growers made a clear profit of no less than ninepence per pound. Australian consignors as a body are realising that they must join forces in order to secure proper conditions for the storage of the fruit on the steamers. A small consignment is likelv to receive scant attention, but if Miopia 1 cold chambers are engaged the shipping company has an interest in seeing that the best results possible are attained.