CORRESPONDENCE.

Bush Advocate, Volume XIX, Issue 737, 10 June 1907, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

RE THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. (To the Editor.) Sir, — In your issue of to-day (Wednesday) you publish a letter from me oji the above. As if in corroboration of my letter you also publish the following cable: "The City of London workhouses are using margarine instead of butter in the interests of the ratepayers." Now. I don't know what the banquet and the gold caskets cost; I don't sjippose it cost a farthing less than £5000. I wonder if the various colonial Premiers would have shrugged their shoulders when they were receiving their costly presents, if they had known that the poor workhouse people had been deprived of their little bit of butter, in order to buy them. You can depend on this that the banqueting to Premiers, the same as tlie banqueting to other people is simply an excuse for a juggle. I remember when the Sultan of Turkey went to London I believe, in 1867, the corporation spent £4000 on covering in their court yard and turning it into a fairy palace, so as to give Abdul the damned one evening's entertainment ; it was estimated the whole cost for the one evening amounted to £10,---000. I think most humane people will agree with me that any municipal body that squanders its wealth, and at the same time gives its poor margarine to eat,, in the manner 'I have stated, is unworthy of the slightest consideration. I also think that most people will agree with me that there is very little honor conferred upon anyone receiving anything at the cost or at the hands of such a corporation as my letters indicate. It is possible that many of your readers do not know what margarine is. It is a composition of fat and other substances made up to imitate butor, and when you bear in mind that it is retailed at 4d per lb and upwards, you will see that there is not much colonial butter in it ; it is mostly imported from Holland. — I am, etc., AN OLD RAD.