BE JUST BEFORE GENEROUS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 76, 19 August 1914, Page 3

BE JUST BEFORE GENEROUS.

(To th« Editor.) Sir,—By yours of the 17tli, 1. notice that a meeting is to be caliud of t!i« various dairy companies' to decide on a general levy on all cheques of suppliers in tile various factories. To my m'jnd the proposed' levy is premature. As there is 110 immediate necessity to raise fund*, it would he far better and more considerate if tho directors were to wait until they sco what price the butter is likely to realise, and what the cost of marketing is likely to be before pledging money belonging to others. There would be as miueh justice in raising money by a poll tax as there would be by an equal levy per lb on butterfat supplied to a dairy factory. even- factory there axe a number pf suppliers who are either renting their farms or who have only paid a small percentage on the purchase'inoney, the 'basis of the price of the. hind in practically all cases being on its 'producing value with hutterl'at at lOd to l-2d per Hi. .'Should si.th ; people only receive "id (id pe.r lb tlie- cannot afford even a small deduction from their cheques. Landlords and mortgagees may be patriotic enough to be easy while, the paf riotic fever is on them, but, When the war is over, there will soon be vhireats" and foreclosures to those vho ate behind in rent o,r interest oeferc the struggling dairy farmer hao been given time to recoup himself. As most of ■;lie directors of the various companies aie men who have a good l amount of capital beliind them and who have been a long time established on their holdings, and also got in on a low market when purchasing their farms, it would be far more to their credit to be just before being generous, and to- see chat by their "enerosity with other people's money they were not inflicting a serious injury on any poo-r, struggling settler.. Should die directors fail to. take a hint, it is tiinve they were given to understand they were elected to manage the company and not t v - donate money which is not their own wi.hout consulting those io whomi it belongs. To my mind it would be far wiser at present to make only personal voluntary contributions, but when die wai- is over and things tiro again normal., to then make a levy to provide adequate funds in order that all the brave lads who are now leaving us in the prime of manhood, but who mti.y return broken in hody «nd maiauied, may have such provision mndto for them, if unable to provide for themselves, lis wiil -keep them in comfort for the res., of their days without the stigma of charity lining attached to any provision asnde for tli'cm. Unless provision is made for them when tiley return, in years to come their will be forgotten, and. like manv veterans of the Maori "War, Crimean War, and Trtdian Mutiny. th;'v will be allowed to linish their existence in poverty or old men's homes, to the eternal disgrace of a British dominion.—l am, e:e., IT. A. HUNT. Waiongona, August IS.