CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 February 1917, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

ALLEGED SHORT-WEIGHT BUTTER. ; To tile Editor. Sir, —Sly attention lias been drawn to a report in your issue of the loth inst. of :t recent ease in fiie Magistrate's Court at Waverley in which Mr. Mouldy, .manager of the Wanganui Fresh Food and leo Co., was charged iwith selling short-weight butter. The report is i misleading, in stating that costs were entered against the defendant, although the charge was dismissed, and that, therefore, in the opinion of your reporter, the Magistrate did not believe the Wanganui . company entirely free from blame. I am aware of the facts, having appeared in the case as solicitor for the defendant. No costs were applied for or entered against the defendant; the charge was simply dismissed, it was in evidence, given by both the Health Inspector and the Inspector of Weights at Wanganui, that they had frequently tested' the weight of the company's butter, and had never found it short; also that the company uses the greatest care and apt methods at its factory to ensure that none but fullweight 'Outter goes out. Knowing that you would not -wittingly do an injustice, I write putting you in possession of the facts.—l am, etc., A. D. BRODIE. BOWLERS AND THE WAR, , To the Editor. Sir, —I was pleased to see the observation of the Mayoress regarding bowlers helping in making cases reported in issue or Wednesday. We have in New Plymouth an unusually large number of retired moneyed men who a:-.'e keen bowling votaries, and I would like to put it to them, Isn't it up to them to do something practical for "the cause? Most of them have property, and to protect that property and their own skins our boys are in France and elsewhere fighting. The least they can do is to show acknowledgment of the services of the soldiers by assisting them in every way they can. The Mayoress has shown them one way. It isn't a big job to make and pack eases, and it is not half as strenuous as bowling all the afternoon. I don't suggest they should be denied their little diversion, but even superannuated bowlers have their responsibilities in these strenuous times. In New Plymouth the bowlers as a class have done little or nothing, and this, behaviour reflects no credit upon them. If all followed the same course nothing would be done for the soldiers. Because a man is old is no excuse for his not assisting. If he can bowl he can work in the patriotic cause. He can also help with his money. It is up to bowlers to make a .start now, and not wait for a second invitation, or castigation, from our worthy Mayoress, who sets such a striking example of devotion to patriotic work, and self-abnegation.—l am, etc., 'HELPER." - - r-\ •--,,. THE DAIRY IARMER AND THE BALLOT. To the Editor. ■Sir,—As a bush farmer for many long years', I would ask your favor for a few remarks on the above subject. But first of all I wish to thank you for your timely and common-sense article warning our alleged National Government of the consequences likely to be caused by stripping the farms of all able-bodied young men. During the whole of my farming experience I have never known gueh a thing as surplus labor, neither has any otnei farmer—of the bush variety, anyway. The different rounds of work follow each other so quickly that though lie may work seven days a weei; from 12 to 1C hours a day, not one can say that he keeps abreast of the different jobs as they come round. The great anxiety of the farmer is the growing of feed for his cattle. If through sickness or bad weather he gets behind with this, it most likely means starving cowa in the winter. Is'it then for old men and women folks to stump cropping ground, .plough, harrow and all the rest of it? Take it from me, Sir, thoy can't do it. Lots of silly people think the milking is the trouble. Not at all. The growing of feed and the feeding of the stock in the rough wintry weather cannot be done bv weaklings and women . It will be notieU that most of the young men who have appealed have been allowed tills March or April to get into ramp. This mcrrris that in a lot of those cases the cows must go through the freezing worus. This must he so, for the winter feeding and necessary attention at calving time requires robust labor, and old people cannot take it on. But T faney I hear some one, an Appeal Board member or military attendant (God help the Germans when some of these fire-eaters get to the front!) yell out: "But what good are the farms and cows if the IJims win?" Weil, just so; that's the point I want to got at, but would just ask, is. the production of practically all food and raw material for clothing and footwear the least esson tial of all occupations? Read the decisions of the Appeal Boards, and you can come to no other conclusion. A leading .member of the local Board was at one time connected with labor, 1 think, and is, of course, well qualified to lecture uairy fanners with regard to organisation. All alleged labor men are great on "organisation'' and what they call "solidarity." But the kind to be impressed on the farmer is that one shall do the work of three, while the alacrity with which the whole body can "down tools'' seems to be the main object of organisation with so-called labor people. Not many farmers under present conditions can attend to their own work as they should, without taking on tliat of others as well. We are as loyal and as keen on winning the war as any Appeal Board member. We cannot oe otherwise, because the result of years of toil is at,stake, and we're not hankering after Kultur as served out in Belgium. But we can't do the impossible. To get Lack to the watch-word of the."won't works'' —organisation. The writer was in Wellington a few months ago seeing a boy away and met many parents on the same errand, and'what surprised us visitors to the city was the great number of apparently ablebodied men to be seen there. Also in every tram-ear-—ami there must be scores of them—two were on duty. Couldn't women he employed in a greatmany of these positions in,the larger towns as they are in England? What about the position on the wharves just now? That dusty coal business was a well-organised affair, certainly. A Minister begging and pleading, but never n budge to help ever so little towards winning the war till that extra, sixpence an hour was forked out. Why, any old farmer with a free hand and a hundred men from Trentlmin camp would have lad all the=c men, bai the proficiman .Leaders. *t WfllKSa so tifiiu. The iat- * ' - ' h -"i - »■-■ ■

ter would not be looking for a job in future, and work on the wharves to-ilay would go on without a hitch. Well, Sir, the position boiled down is that every farmer and his women folk are working their hardest to prodjuce food, etc., for the 'boys in the trenches, and, incidentally, to feed a few thousand loafers on the wharves, while in the towns, speaking generally, there seems to be no attempt at organisation whatever. Ktill we old folk know the war has to be won at all costs, and must battle on, but I hope I have shown we are nut getting just what might be tailed a square ileal. Apologising for trespassing on your valuable space so much, —1 am, etc., ]s T j, Mangorei, February 12.