WELLINGTON COMMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 171, 21 July 1924, Page 6

WELLINGTON COMMENT.

#FORM OF LIQUOR 'jfo M THIS SESSION 1 (ll.v Telegraph.- Special , to I WELLINGTON jJ! I A licensing bill .i s p rc . mi J7 «■ ■ present session, and just *i ?'* ■ nature of the bill is to he i In the meanwhile, aM * ™ c V 1 the reform of the liquor trL ?' fe I posed, ami propaganda worktl * H tion therewith has teen SjL ß ** 1 pamphlet published by the Nw , »I Licensing Reform Associate! **< E headquarters are in WeffinJo" ■■*«* H suggested in this MheaefiSvL-*» H issue of State purchase and P which the electors have fi lege to vote, should be corporate control substituted it? 1 X this system, the branch and section of the. L,» S? ■ would be exclusively vestedT .>■ Parliament in a corporation Ti o! ■ ous sections of the trade are. to V businesses to the corporation ev;T* El to have a nominal capital, W shares, equivalent in amount to T E value of the businesses and asuf '* E quired. The capital h> to £5£ 1 into "A" shares and "B» saa * d i* I cent of the total being "A" S** i SO per cent "B» shares *" TfcW ft of the "A" shares are to he tfuT: B to the Government of Jfcw' S « without any payment in caah and H to stand equally with the «B° V* H for dividends. All dividends i to "A" shares shall from time ton? B be applied towards payment for «! 6 same, until such dividends shalH, i readied in the aggregate the m≤ | value of the shares. The "B" 8| are to be allotted to the Tend"o«t B proportion to the ascertained vali» • B such businesses respectively. The'jiri ■ dends on all shares are restricts Til 10 per cent, and all profits orertkß are to be applied to national purooZ X such as the extinction of the nation! P" debt, payment of hospital subsidies wH maintenance of main public highwir ■§ etc. The Government is at all tm«K to have a majority on the board m I ! trolling the operations of the coW'B tion. The corporation to act as tb W sole authority for the issue and Z H tinuance of permits to sell alcoholic M liquors, subject always to the -right of X appeal before a magistrate by any w W son affected. The corporation to Im X no power to alter by int» ease or rednt- Ition the total number of licensee,» H the hours provided by statute for tin E sale of liquor. The powers of them- I poration are not to apply to chartered I clubs. The corporation is to been- W. powered to grant special licenses for tb I manufacture of wines within New Zealand, but such wines must be sold eatasively to the corporation. The' ahpe are the outstanding features of tit scheme, and_, presumably, once tie corporation coiiiea into existence, .there mj be no more voting on the licensing mstion, and there would be no .further i» for the New Zealand Alliance. Decline of Wheat Giowinj , .' The president of the Council'of .Apiculture, Mr. W. Perry, at the' amgal meeting, gave very good reasons why the heavy duties, the embargo, and otter forms of Government interference in respect to wheat should end. He stated that land that had grown a big-crop or two of wheat .would afterwards fail fo give a good yield of grass until it to heavily dressed with manurer~ r Wlieaone took into account the heavy cost of production, arid- the depletion of soil fertility, it was astonishing that anyone grew . wheat, and it was easily understood that 'it required a very large price to compensate the fanner. He maintained that sheep, cattle, and dairying were i sounder proposition so long as thej yielded reasonable returns. There vu a time in the history of Xew Zealand when wheat was our important stapfe produce, ranking as high, if not higher, than wool. That was 35 to 40 jean ago, before we knew anything mud about the freezing or dairying industries. Wheat growing is unprofitable because costs of production here are greater ttai in other wheat-growing countries : -4 lls ' tralia for instance —and it' is just common sense to admit the fact and face the position, instead of penalising the people in a vain effort to maintain an unprofitable industry. Dairy Production. Taking the dairy produce year as beginning on August 1, eleven months of the current year expired on June 30, and the grading of butter, which probably more correctly represents the country's production than any other record, stems that in the eleven months the butjer graded totalled 1,120,723 cwt, as against 1,340,606 cwt in the corresponding Seven months of the previous season, a decrease of 220,853 cwt, while the gra'dings of cheese totalled 1,476,294 cwt, as against 1,218,524 cwt, an increase of ' 257,773 cwt. Thus the gradings of butter aid cheese combined show a small increase of 31,887 cwt. But when these figures are converted into butterfat equivaleit, there is a decrease of 0.18 per cent,'wiid is said to have been due to the'dry weather experienced during the season. Some people anticipate a further storage in the coming season, owing to tat fact that a number of fanners have nverted to sheep. This, no doubt, is •» important factor, but against this moj' be set the better yield from the cows, the results of herd-testing. In the meanwhile it is interesting to note that tl>e values of both butter and 1 cheese arc being well maintained, and the surprising feature of the market is the remarkable evenness of the prices. New Zealand salted butter, Australian, Argentine.aa" Irish are all over ISO/ per cwt, we margin between the different brands being a few shillings. New Zealand ansalted butter and Danish butter are bota quoted at 204/, while not so very long ago the difference between the two was . as much as 20/.