COUNTY SELLERS ASSOCIATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1645, 27 March 1884, Page 2

COUNTY SELLERS ASSOCIATION.

-"■♦ .-■■ A meeting of the abovo Association was 'held in the upper room of the Institute last' evening. Mr K. S, President occupied the chair. The attendance of members was not very large, THF FARMERS' CLUB, The President reported that he had received a communication from MrCave to the effect that the Farmers' Club as-constituted did not meet.the convenience of farmers, The reasons urged for forming an independent club appeared to justify such a step being taken. Perhaps some of tho farmers present would express them. Mrflessey said lie had talked over the matter with the bulk of tho farmers in the district, and found their feeling to be in favor of a Farmers' Club proper. They required to discuss many little matters in which other members of the Association- would not take the slightest interest. ; The President regretted the absence of Mr Lowes, who -had specially advocated the connection .of the- Farmers' Club'with the Association,

Mr Dagg thought' that ■ with such a small meeting it was undesirable to take_ decided actioij.that evening to separate the Farmers' Club from the Association.... .. ,

Mr W. H.)Beetham .thought they might meet the wishes of the farmers without entirely severing their connection with the Association. Tho farmers might be allowed to call their owe meetings and appoint their.own.chairman. It was obviously inconvenient for them to wait for the ordinary meetings of the Association'when they desired to discuss an agricultural question.

The President suggested that Messrs Lowes, Dagg, and Beetham be appointed a committee to' consult with thefarmers with a view to meeting their wishes.

Mr Hessey thought that suggestion would not be of any use. The farmers desired to meet in a plain and convenient manner on Saturdays in some small room.

Mr Dagg thought that the pastoral were so allied with the agricultural interests that it would be.unwise to separate them. Mr'J. Vile said lie could understand the foeling of farmers who did not care to discuss their private affairs at a general meeting of members of such an Association as the present one Ee thought they would receive with a good grace a resolution from the meeting allowing thera to .withdraw. Mr Carman ; questioned.. whether sufficient members were obtainable to support a Farmer's Club. ijM'iv Bunriy suggested' that as the question was not placed on the order paper it would be as well to carry out the recommendation of the President, He movod-That the proposed Committeebe appointed to consult with the farmers and report to the next meet ing. : ■

Tho motion--was seconded by Mr Carman and carried.

ALTERATIONS IN RAILWAY TARIFF.

The President said that they would recollect that the Government recently signified their intention of raising the tariff. This seemed to him to be a very proper thing to discuss, because it was brought about in.a manner which suggested other considerations than the mere question of profit or loss in the carriage of produce. If the Government had raised the rates without reference to other facts, he was not sure that it was competent for their association to review their action. When Major Atkinson was memorialised on the : subject of theso rates, his answer was, that'the increase was necessary, and having regard to the decline in Customs' revenue, it could not, as suggested down South, be delayed. That was practically an admission on the part of the Premier that lie was prepared to use the railway revenue to meet a deficiency in the Customs, He deemed this a very undesirable state ot'.,things, which should not be passed! over without remonstrance, ft was, practically, sotting the House of Representatives on' one side. He'thOught this pointed to the desirability .of the railways being removed from political influence. It might be, wrong to assume that the rates were formerly lowered from political influence, but thoy did know that the rates were now raised from political' pressure. He thought that.beforo theGovernment used the- railways, for political purposes they would show that they were managed to the best possible" advantage. They knew, that there was an abuse of. the freo pass ! system—(hear! hearl!/—which gave privileges to a few atrthe cost of the many; All this arose from railways being managed on' political rather than on commercial principles. The Government had taken a first step by proposing to, revoke the Press passes/ Instead of doing this, which meant the abolition of all free passes, tliey-halved the thing, and issued these passes at half ordinary rates to the Press, He hoped the time would 'come wheii no privileges would be accorded on the railways. If English' railways had

been similarly managed their shares would Hot be : at a .premium. The colonists of New Zealand were the shareholders in the colonial railways, and were entitled "to have' them managed on a business basis. The railways was one of their few mainStays, and if they were only to earn two per cent,, and to be made the sport of political changes, it would be bad for

the colony. They were a splendid property but badly managed. He then moved,—That this meeting condemns the action of the Government in raising the railway tariff; to meet a deficiency on the general revenue as an unconstitutional' proceeding. ■ Mr W. H. Beetnam seconded the motion pro forma. ; The first reason given by Major Atkinson was a sound one. ;The railways ought to pay more, than 2 per cent. He agreed with the Chairman that it was-wrong, in prin•, ciple to raise the tariff,to meet a falling revenue, . Possibly ; Major Atkinson's meaning had .not been clearly, understood on this point..':; If the railways were managed by a company the tariff would be raised to

a point at which a dividend would be produced or approximated to one as far could' h done without .sacrificing ■traffic.: ; ;

' Mr ;McGregor, thought thofc Major Atkinson was hard up arid had been compelled to raise the tariff to meet his requirements. He believed that the grain tariffliad been low and had not paid. If the railways were in the hands of a private company, rates would be raised rightaway. On their, own line they had no reason to complain of the rates charged, He believed it-.was a great mistake for the Government to have constructed the lines in the first instance. If they had only been constructed when and where they were wanted there would have beea no loss on them. He believed, however, that in the Ions; run the colony would derive great benefit from its lines, He agreed thai railways should be removed from political control, 'He had no faith in Government railways;.and Government management of railways. He believed that ordinary; railway managers would produce better 5 results. He thought the President had put too much strain on ■ Major Atkinson's allusion to the falling off in the customs revenue. Nothing would be more unpopular than'to increase the Property Tax, and he felt that Major Atkinson hit the right nail on the'head-when he raised the tariff. '

Mr Bunny thought that if the Premier had pointed out that low railway rates were unprofitable,there would have been a good ground for the change, but he did not say this. They had not to go far to see why the railways only paid 2 per cent. ' The whole system had been full of abuses. He understood that the percontago on their own line was a fair one, and he did not see why they should have an extra tariff placed on it to make up for losses in other parts of the colony. He was satisfied that the railways were badly, and expensively managed (hear! hear!) Their own line was absurdly mismanaged,, The actual running time of travelling between Masfcerton and Wellington was only 75 per cent of the time spent in the trip.'He was satisfied that the free pass privilege had been grossly abused by the press and by M.ER,'s, He had heard that every compositor and printer's devil travelled with the press passes, A man when he became a Member, too, travelled about much more freely than before. Mr J. Yile agreed with the remarks which had been made. He believed' a company would manage the railways much better, and if they were transferred the Property Tax could be dispensed with. He did not think the Government had stuck on too much for freight in any part of the colony. On theirown line the trains were 'run frequently at a dead loss from mis : management. By their hard and, fast rule the Government frequently.shut, out a good deal of produce which might otherwiso be sent.

The President in reply pointed out that where the Government were really to blame was that when they lowered the rates to an unprofitable point they must Invo known the effect ot the reduction which they made. He did not desire to pass any opinion as to the sufficiency or insufficiency ot the existing rates.

Mr Mc Gregor moved as an amendment that it was desirable that the railways should be placed under a Board of management so as to be removed from'all political pressure, He failed to see that the deficiency in the revenue meant any misappropriation of money, and held that it was necessary to screw something out of the railways, He believed that it was premature yet to hand the lines over to a Company, but it was practicable yet to hand them over to a board. He thought that such a Board would at once close some of the lines that were a dead loss, Such a Board too ought to have a voice in locating new lines apart from political pressure. He believed that the free pass system had been abused in New Zealand, but not to the extent indicated. He thought legislators deserved special consideration, and it was a small matter for them to have ,1 free pass when they travelled. In many instances they did the work of the colony at a serious loss to themselves.

The President said that as a point of order the amendment ought to bo taken as a substantive resolution.

Mr McGregor expressed his willingness to move it in this form.

~ Tho motion of the President was then put and caried by the casting vote ' of the chair, and tho motion of ,Mr McGregor was also put and carried unanimously. On the suggestion of the President it was agreed that a copy of the resolution be sent to the Colonial Treasurer and to the Woodville Association. RAILWAY LANDS CONSTRUCTION ACT, The President pointed out that by . this Act the Government agreed that, on certain authorised lines, lands should be granted by the Crown. Five hundred thousand acres were set: apart in the North Island for this purpose, and the Government had the power to give away all the land it required for the construction of rail-, ways and buildings. They had the power of giving it up to ' 30 per cent, on the cost of construction, ■provided that the latter did not exceed more than £SOOO per mile. The Wellington-Manawatu got this grant, and Mr John Bathgate had recently read a notice to debenture holders published in a Scotch paper, in which it was stated that this Company had secured land to the value of £548,000 to construct a line which could only cost £500,000. If half millions were.given to other lines such, as the Otago Central and the Nelson and, Belgrove, it would lead to'great inconvenience. Here they had a grant of 150,000 acres made to one Company, which was likely to bo made to others, If land was given away in such great slices, what was the use of limiting the sale of sections to 300 acres to any one purchaser? If the statement were untrue, the Company was committing a fraud on the debenture holders. If it were true, where did they get the land from. It was due to Mr C. Pharazyn that he had prevented some, of the Wairarapa lands from being taken as a part of the endowment of this company, Mr J. Vile said the land granted had

been enhanced in value by the construction of the railway. The Chairman thought that if the value of the grant had been raised by the construction of railways the Government ought to have made it themselves, Mr Bunny said the shares in this Company, went up.to a promium directly the bargain with the Governwas comploted. BIULII BIRDS; A letter was read from the Feather ston Farmers' Club re destruction, J small birds. . The Featherston: Clubhad decided to use strychnine dissolved in acid. Mr J. Vile referred to the act passed last session which enabled local bodies to tax land owners for such a purpose. •His own impression was that it was more desirable to keep small birds than to destroy them. Mr A, Johnston said ho had tried every method of poisoning sparrows without success, The President said that he had been informed that strychnine was effective. Mr Hessey said Mr Chamberlain picked up a bucketful of dead sparrows under a tree after one poisoning; last season. Mr Carman had found phosphorised wheat the best method for poisoning small birds. He had reduced the birds sufficiently on his own land, but he (would not like to extinguish them altogether., (heai, hear.) . Mr Dagg said farmers formerly lost a large proportion of their corn by the caterpillar, but said that by the introduction of small birds they had not j suffered irom this pest. The meeting then adjourned.