OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 262, 27 March 1911, Page 3

OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

('By Cock-o'-the-North ")

i. said last week that I seriously doubted ihi* (jnaiilii-iitii.si- nf the members of ilic South 1.-huul Association to understand and judge the necessary points of a utility bird, and. the reason is that even if they -were the best fanciers in tho world this would not qualify them to do so. They may advance as an excuse that the standard was by (reputed) leading pmiltrvmen of the Dominion, but 1 must emphatically object- to this term us applied to any of the live gentlemen who are responsible for the ''standard" except Mr. F. Brown, Government expert, who, by virtue of his position, is entitled to be looked upon as one of the leaders, but one only. The fact that two others are oflicers of the New Zealand Utility Club and one manager of a Government poultry farm does not necessarily entitle them to be styled leaders. 1 take it that a man has to prove by his own ability that he is a leader, and not to rely oil a position he happens to hold for that title. The "tttandard" is, so far as I know, the only claim to anything above ordinary ability as poultry men that they can lay claim to from a utility point of view, and if that standard is judged from the same point of view, they have a lot to do yet before their title as leaders can be substantial. Readers in considering the side of the question I present to them, must bear in ! mind at all times and never forget for an instant that it is utility poultry (useful, good producing, profitable poultry) that this standard presumes to judge, and that utility in such birds must stand paramount to everything else. If an engine, agricultural machine, milk machine —in fact, any machine—is exhibited in a show or elsewhere, the award i 3 given for strength, efficiency, cheapness and quality, not for best painted or polished parts. Again, jam, pickles, scones, or , other edibles, gain awards not for the ' appearance of the receptacle which contains them, but for their purity, quality of manufacture and economy. Further, a working horse is judged by its soundness, strength, developments, etc., and a jump- 1 ing horse is actually made to jump and prove his usefulness in that respect. Numberless other useful things could be mentioned. Now, why are they so judged? Because they are entered as utility articles or animals, and are judged accordingly, A bird is entered in a utility class by its owner because lie knows the bird to be a good layer, a good table bird, or both, and a standard which professes to judge such birds should deal with the necessary points requisite in all (or any) of these, and nothing else which is irrelevant to the object for which they are entered to compete. Referring back to the question of these gentlemen's title as leaders, which has been given them (for, in fairness, I must state that so far as 1 know they have not claimed it themselves) leaders go. first and by their ability alone compel others to follow them, because these others know that the leaders are superior to them in some special point (or points) in the particular branch in which they lead. Now, speaking as a utility poultryman, pure and simple, I do not know of anything done by any of these gentlemen that I would* (as a utility man) follow—in the laying down of a plant or the care of the birds afterwards —but Ido know of plenty I would certainly would not follow thein in, and the standard is one of these. I have never had occasion .to follow any of them yet, but I have advocated methods diametrically opposed to them, and hundreds (many times over) have followed me with benefit and profit to themselves. If this is so, and I am prepared at any time to prove it right up to the handle, why should I. or any others as good as myself, of whom there are many, accept laws from men whom we know are not better qualified than ourselves to make them, especially when we can see that these laws are not only ridiculous but positively dangerous to the industry they are supposed to improve by their observance? j

When a Government elected by the people passes a mischievous law they are sioon thrown out at the next election, but what would be said of a lot of men of the same number as, .say, our House of Parliament, banding themselves together and framing a code of laws to govern the remaining 1,000,000 or so of inhabitants in this Dominion without warrant or authority from these people to do so? Why, they would be declared mad and bumptious, and their laws treated with the scorn they deserved. How much more, however, would this be the case if these laws were plainly seen by the people whom they sought to govern to be defective and dangerous to the best interests of the people! Well, readers, the case so far as the live gentlemen I have alluded to and utility poultry men and women are concerned is exactly parallel. They seek to impose a code of laws on a body of people without authority from those peoplo and without, in my opinion, the necessary quality to even make sound ones. If these laws aTe accepted by the utility men of the Dominion as't-hev stand, well, all I have to say is that it is a very poor look-out for'the poultry industry of this Dominion.