AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1656, 15 February 1883, Page 3

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.

TO TJIK LDITOR. Sm. — ■" When a certain class that exists in every community falls out, honest men gpt their due,"' is an old and trite saying, and anybody reading the account of the slander trial of Payton v. Stead in the Ca»ti>bitr>i Tunn of the 27th January, and the pertinent remarks of the Li/ltclton Turn") of the *2f)th will readily acknowledge the ti uth of it. In a country like New Zealand where the agricultural and pastoral classes are so entirely in the hands of middlemen as to the disposal of their produce, it behoves the public, and farmeis especially, to keep a very vigilant watch on the doings ot tho3e agents to whom, under the picsent order of things, they must consign their pioduce for sale, and see that none of those " mercantile customs " aie put in force to rob them of their hard cai ued profits. Doubtless, sir, you have not space to print the whole of the aiticle above icfoired to, but when the Li/tUltnii Timo can suppose a case such as I will quote, your readeis will well understand the gravity of the charges hinted at: "Let us suppose a case of a bogus sal*. John Smith is a farmer on the Ashbmton Plains, ignoi ant of the rudiments of meicantile business, and with twenty thousand bushels of wheat to sell. These he puts, into the hands of Mr Box, a Christchurch corn speculator. Box has reason to think that the price of wheat, then .5s Gd m London, will shortly lisu to 6s. The \\ heat is shipped, and Cox, a friend of Box's, is instructed to oiler us (id for it. This, Smith, on Mr Eox's advice, is fain to accept, and Cox is then duly instructed to thiow up his bargain. Shortly afti/rwards, utterly unknown to Smith, who has. gone away i\ith his os fid, minus the usual commission, the wheat is &old to the firm of Knox and Co.', at a rate equivalent to Os per bushel. How is Smith, inexperienced countryman as he is, ever to find out how he has been swindled ? How many Smiths, Browns, and Joneses have been let in in this fashion in past times in Canterbury ? Mr Roberts is supposed to know what he is about when dealing in grain, yet even he only found out his position by sheer accident. Dozens of men are dealing in grain every day who don't by any means know what they are about. The commonest justice demands that these men should be protected. If there is a custom in the corn trade by which their property may, unknown to themselves, come into the hands of their agents to be subsequently profitably disposed of by those gentlemen, they ought to know it. Then they can go into the grain market with their eyes open to the risk they take. The Chamber of Commerce, as the representative of our mercantile community, and as the guardian of its morality, is bound to take this matter up and pronounce upon it once and for all. Our merchants ought not to shirk this duty : not only ought they to make their customers' position safe, but their own good name is at stake. The Chamber of Commerce stands in the same relation to our merchants as the Law Society to bur lawyers. Law Societies enquire into matters affecting the reputation of their profession, not only to protect the public, but to protect themselves. Otherwise public opinion would make things xmpleasantly warm for them. The same reasoning exactly applies in the ' commercial world." This as pointed out can happen in the sale,, of grain and naturally in the sale 'of other produce. What is the remedy? Cooperation. r Here the farmers , evidently have a very strong combination against them. Why not meet combination -with combined effort.,, Farmers have themselves to blame. It is a' well-known fact that more money is lost them 'by' their petty jealousies than would clothe jtheir children and dower' 'their SaugoWs* for, generations. " Hewlio runs may read."' —I am, &c, '„ ",' X.Y.Z.

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