The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1882.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 990, 3 February 1882, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1882.

In'our last issue "we deplored the want of a fair market price for beeves and sheep in the Empire City, and pointed out that the cause of Wellington being laehind.hand with other centres of population in the colony in this respect lay in the existence of a small hut irifluentinl ch;cle of king 'butchers, wjpe quotations far fat jatbck possess .the immutability of the laws of the. MqdesJ and Persians, . -Fop t&alast dozen years stockowners in this district ha-ve. vainly endeavored to rebel against the despotic power of these rulers of the roast, but without avail, These beef and mutton potentates of Port Nicholson have been too wealthy, too united, and too intelligent to permit their little business arrangements to be disturbed by. graziers, and every effort to break the chain has only served to consolidate the power of'tjbe Lords of the Ring. Some four years ago the stockowners' of the Wairarapa thought 'they saw their way'to check the sway of thesemeat' Moguls; by holding periodical: sales of 'stock ,at Featherston, arid went" to 'a -corisidprablo expense in establishing commodious sale yards, to which they hoped to attract tlie smaller , butehefa'of tlio Empire City, who, like the graziers, w ; ere'dependent on the

dictators of the market, The small buyers, however, would not' come to Featherston, and so the scheme collapsed, and the promoters of it dropped a sum of money which must to this day be a sorrowful remembrance to each one of them, The graziers held, the key "of the problem which they had to solve when they' endeavored to establish direct communication with the smaller-butchers of Wellington; but at the time we pointed out that the st<fp they took to accomplish the object they had in view was a mistake. The course we advocated was for the stooknwneis of the Wairarapa to kill their stock iif this district and hold periodical dead inept auctions, in Wellington, Had Ih'eydone this there is no doubt that every butcher in Wellington would have bceir coinpellcd to buy in such a market, and the ring would have been broken up absolutely and finally. The money' which'!.was? thrown away in the Featherston sale' yards would have provided suitable slaughtering'premises, and the value of the skins would more than have covered the cost of preparing the; meat for the market. The remedy, we then suggested for bringing to their bearings the mouarchs of the meat market is still an alternative which.is worthy of consideration, The autocrats yof the Wellington shambles are, we believe, very enterprising and shrewd men of business, who are justly esteemed for their many good qualities. None the less have they compelled the graziers of this district to accept lower prices than have prevailed in other parts of the colony. They, have understood how to work the Wairarapa against the West Coast, and qhe West Coast against the Wairarapa; and on both sides of the Wellington province graziers have for many a long year allowed the ring to take the lion's share of the profit on every head of fat stock which they have grown, We hope the time is coming when the Wairarapa will be emancipated from this thraldom, and be placed on a footing as regards markets with other pastoral districts of the colony,