A FARMERS' CLUB.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 180, 31 July 1889, Page 8

A FARMERS' CLUB.

TRADE MARKS BILL.

MEETING OF FARMERS AT PUKEKOHE.

At the conclusion of Mr Buckland's sale at Pakekohe on Monday, 29th July, a meeting of farmers was held in the Pukekohe Hotel, called for the purpose of forming a Farmers' Club. There were between thirty and forty farmers present, being fully representative of all classes of farmers in tho district. Mr John Saunderson was chosen as chairman,and after reading the notice convening tho meeting said thab at a meeting of the Pukekohe farmers held some time ago Messrs Allen, Chadwick, Koulston, J. H. Wright and himself had' been appointed as a committee to take action on the bubter question, with a view of having the farmers represented on the Committee which fixed the price of butter and eggs in the intetests of the Auckland Grocers' Association, in ■ order that the farmers might have some chow of getting a little justice meted out to them ; this they had doae.and were now as ib were come to a standstill, so that it was ' necessary for the farmers to take another efcep, if they wanted tho good work already commenced to continue further ; ha would 'therefore call upon Mr Chadwick to make a few remarks. Mr Chadwick said thab as ib was nob a very nice day and many of them would no doubt be anxious to get home, he would make hi? remarks very few and short. He was triad to be able to tell them that the representatives of the farmers and the • Auckland Grocers' Association had held their first united meeting- on Thursday ■ last. Mr Ambury represented Pukekohe and surrounding districts : Mr Bollard, Papatoitoi and surroundings ; and Mr El'ingham, the Waiuku district?. At the last meeting of the Pukekohe Committee he had been askod to tako steps to get a Farmers' Club or Association started hero. There had been a certain amount of expense attached to the action taken by their Committee, and although they had on this occasion, cheerfully paid thia themselves, yet it would be manifestly unfair for them to continue doing so for ever ; ib was therefore necessary for a Club to be formed in order thab the expenses incurred in fighting the battles of the farmers should be borne by the many instead of the few. Bethought he need j not say much to convince them of the need for a Farmers' Club. They-had already had experience in the butter and egg question in which all would admit there was absolute need for something to bo done. Now they had the Trade Marks Bill before Parliament; this Bill amongst other things required that a certificate of analysis of contents ehould be supplied with every bag of bone-dust or artificial manure ; surely this was a very important question for the farmers to consider. (Hear, hear.) He thoughb that, before going further with the Farmers' Club, it would bo well for them to pass somo sort of resolution on the Trade Marks Bill which would help to strengthen thehandsofbhecoantrymembersofcheliouse of B-epresentatives as against the merchants and dealers, who were doing all they poseibly could to prevent the application of the Trade Marks Bill to artificial manures, on tho ground he believed thab manufacturers of and dealers in manures were euch an honesb class of men thab certificates as to the composition of the manures wore altogether unnecessary and nob wanted by the farvQ/we, (Ob, oh.)

Mr Saunderson agreed with Mr Chadwiok that some such resolution should be passed at once and telegraphed to their member, Mr Hatnlin. The farmers round Auckland had held a meeting, and had approved of the proposition, that certificates of analysis be placed in every bag of artificial manure. Mr Chad wick proposed, " That) this meet? ing of farmers approves of the principle of the Trade Marks Bill before the House of Representatives, and requests Mr Hamlin to give the measure his hearty support," and that the resolution be telegraphed to Mr Hamlin by the Secretary. He understood that the dealers had held a meeting, and come to the conclusion that such a scheme as certifying to the contents ol every bag was unworkable, but he could not agree with the dealers. Mr James McDonald had great pleasure in seconding the resolution, though in his opinion the Bill scarcely went far enough. He could say positively that it \vae very necessary to have certificates with artificial manures, as a great deal of what was sent into the country consisted largely of rubbish which not only did no good to the land, but was actually injurious to ib.

Mr Rutherford supported the motion, and said that in some cases the better the land, the more bonodusb was required for it. He considered that the merchant who knowingly supplied bad bonedust or manure committed a greater crime than the man who picked the fanner's pocket in the street, for he not only deprived him of that which he actually took, that is the price paid for the stuff, but he deprived him of the benetits to be derived from his land, his seed and his labour for, he might say, twelve months. He could mention many instances where bad bonedust had been supplied, so bad that even the seed had been spoilt, because ho had seen seed from the same bag sown with good manure in the same paddock and ab the same time, and produce a splendid crop, so that there was nothing else but the bad bonedust to be blamed for the bad result. He felt very strongly that the manufacturers of and dealers in all artificial manures should be compelled by law to provide a certificate as to the quality of their manures, as it was a perfect fraud upon the land to put bad bonedust or manure into it.

Mr Roulston said that he happened to be in Auckland when the farmers met at the British Hotel, and he went to that meeting and was very glad that he had done so, as he had been considerably enlightened by what he heard and saw there. Dealers in manures said that they were obliged to import an inferior quality in order to comply with the demand of the farmers for a cheap manure. He had inspected a sample of bonedust or manure shown at the Auckland meeting by Mr Wallace. He (Mr Koulston) had had a pretty large experience now in bonedust, and he, as well as all the other farmers who examined the sample, thought that it was a first-class sample, and he would defy any man to say otherwise, unless he wa3 more expert than anyone he had yet met. Mr Wallace informed them that it was a sample made by himself, and that it contained only ten per cent, of bones, the ninety per cent, being chiefly ground cocoanut shells and sand. He had no doubb in his mind now that many of the farmers present had been swindled in this way, and he thought that every shipment of imported manure and every portion locally manufactured should be analysed and certified, and then they would know what they were buying; if they wanted a good manure they could get it, and if they wanted a bad one they could get that too, and they would know thab ib was bad. He thoroughly agreed with the resolution bofore the meeting. The point was raised that the cost of so many analyses would fall upon the farmers, as it usually did, but Messrs Chadwick and Saunderson, as experienced I tradesmen, said that in their opinion fair samples nauld easily be taken from a single lot or shipment, and a printed copy of the certificate of analysis of the sample placed in every bag, so chat the cost would be trifling compared with tho value of the whole, and might easily be borne by the manufacturer or dealer. As regards getting a manure cheap, manures were like teas and coffees, they could be had or made of various qualities, bub the price was always in proportion to tho quality ; if the price was low, so was the quality, so that the farmer did not save anything by buying an article that was sold at a low prica per ton. Mr J. H. Wright said ho had frequently told the merchants they could easily manufacture a cheap and low-priced manure from Peruvian guano and sand, and then sell it as Island guano. He thought tho Government might do something in this line and sell it out ot bond on certificates of analysis. Eis opinion was that as long as things remained as they are, it would be a difficulty, if not an impossibility, to get some dealers in manures to acfc aX honest men ; and probably the Government had si'irilar opinions when they brought this Trademarks Bill before the House. He knew there was a tremendous lot of bonedusb used in Pukekohe, and they all wanted to know what they were buying and putting into their , land, In Sydney they could buy pure , or good bonedust . and have it landed ! on the Auckland Wharf for five pounds ! per ton, but they generally had to pay the Auckland dealer something like £8 per ton for it. Surely this was allowing . more than a reasonable profit to the dealer. Mr J. Allen said that he had hoard that , the sample of ten-per-cent. bonedust had i been shown with another sample to oho of the dealers in Auckland for his opinion thereon. He pronounced the first ; to be a splendid sample of boneduab, but i the second to be real rubbish. We could raagino his i'eolinga when informed that the "second had been bought from him and that the first was manufactured by a farmer with only ton per cent of bones in it. If a farmer could succeed so well in making artificial bonedusb, what could an expert manufacturer do? The farmer, whatever his faults might be, if ho was selling wheat, gave wheat, and if potatoes, gave potatoes. If he were to supply lard in place of butter, supposing that lard could be got for a lower price than the butter, which, however, it could not, or lard with ten per cenb. of butter mixed with it, what would the Auckland dealer call such conduct ? He would say the farmers were the biggest lot of rascals under the sun ; what then was the dealer who would supply a bonedust containing ninety per cent, or cocoanub shells and sand as a first-class article ? Messrs Cathcart, Fulton, and others made remarkt, showing that in their opinion there was a large amount of dishonesty practised in their bonedusb trade, and thab there was great need for the Trademarks Bill becoming law. Tho proposition having boen pub to the meeting was then carried unanimously. Mr J. H. W'right then explained fully to the meeting the advantages that were to be derived from a Farmers' Club, and urged upon those present) the necessity of forming- themselves into a union for the furtherance of their own interests. The rosulb of the butter question was sufh'cieut to show them that when they united they had some chance of bettering themselves, where they had none when they held aloof from each other and allovved their aotions bo be governed by bheir feelings of petty jealousy of their neighbours. Mr James Finlay said thab he, for one, fras enabled to speak thankfully and positively of the benefits which the farmers had derived from their agitation over the bubber, There wero four gtorekeepere in hie

settlement, and they all sent their butter to membere ■of the Grocers' Aseooiation until about two months ago; now only three of them did so, and he could tell the meeting the reason of this : His stoiekeeper, the fourth, had been giving him elevenpence halfpenny for hia butter, and he happened to mention to a neighbour who sold to one of the other three and was surprised to hear that he was only getting ninepence ; next week when the fourth storekeeper went to town to get paid for the previous week's supply, he was asked ff he was a storekeeper ; of course he replied that he was. The grocer then told him that he had been under the impression that he was a private person, but being a storekeeper, he could not give him more than ninepence. The storekeeper demanded the return of the butter ; but as part of it had been sold, this was impossible, so the grocer was forced to adhere to his bargain, and pay the shilling aa before; and he (Mr F.) got his elevenpence half-penny. The storekeeper then looked up grocers who were not members of the Grocers' Association, and succeeded in getting the same price again. Ho (Mr ¥.) was quite prepared to give names if required. In onesense this might be looked upon as a proof that the agitation had done harm, as three of the four storekeepers were getting only_ ninepence when a fourth were getting a shilling, but he thought it clearly proved the truth of statements which he had heard that the Grocers' Association were doing all they could to crush the country storekeepers (Avoice,"and Mr Chadwick in particular "), yes, particularly Mr Chadwick ; and in order to do this were not content with their own profits but seized upon those of the country storekeeper and farmer in addition, when they could do so. Messrs Barbour, Fulton, Roulston, McDonald, Rutherford, and Saunderson having spoken on the matter, it was unanimously agreed to form the Pukekohe Farmers' Club, and after a number of those present had given in their names and subscriptions as members, the meeting was brought to a close by the usual vote of thanks to the Chairman and the landlord for the use of the room.