FAT CATTLE SCARCE IN DUNEDIN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1911, Page 9

FAT CATTLE SCARCE IN DUNEDIN.

[b* telegraph— special xo the post.) DUNEDIN, Thifi Day. Prime fat cattle, have 'been scarce for some months in tho Dunedin market. This morning thirty-four fat bullocker from Napier were landed from tho Mokoia for Elliott Bros. They were driven into an enclosure in the shed on the crces wharf and then, taken by road to Burn&ide. The samo firm has bought a largo number of fat cattle in Hawkes Bay for its Dunedin business, but future lots they intend to ship from Napior to- Kaiapoi, thence by rail to Dunedin. CONTROL OF TAUMARUNUI. RESIDENTS PROTEST. fBT IELEGBAPH — SPECIAL TO THI FOStJ AUCKLAND, This Day. Taumarunui, which is now an important European centre, finds itself placed in- an intolerable position, owing to the operations of the Maori Council* Act of 1900. That Act was passed for tho purpose of enabling the natives in Maori centres and surroundings to establish some simple machinery of local self-government, in order that they might frame for themselves such rules and regulations on matters of local concorn or relating to their social economy as should appear best adapted to their own special wants. It was thought that if the Maoris in their various kainga-s, villages, or pas were encouraged in this direction it would conduce to their higher civilisation and contentment. The object was a laudable one, but th© results do not appear to bav9 come ;up to the expectations of the framers of the measure. • A meeting of residente of the borough was held on Wednesday evening, to consider the question of sending a petition to the Governor, praying for tho removal of the kainga restrictions which are in operation in tho town. The Mayor (Mr. G. H. Thompson) said it was an intolerable state of things that two conflicting authorities should co-exist in the borough : the authority of a Maori Council, having headquarters at Wanganui, and that of a duly elected Borough Council. The former was set up when there was only a handful of pakehas in the p^e, tho latter when the European citizens outnumber the natives by ten to one. It was useless, he eaid, going to the trouble of electing a council, and useless for the latter to frame bylaws if the Maori portion of tho inhabitants were not to be amenable to them. He instanced the terrible state of things lately reported regarding insanitary conditions in Maori pas, having led ! to sickness, and oven tho death of an' estimable young man. Tho Native Department lately withdrew its subsidy to the Public Health Department, so that the latter no longer exercised jurisdiction over Maori sanitation, etc., with disastrous results. As to the restriction regarding liquor, the Mayor said he had been all over the world, but he had never witnessed an instance of such iniquitous interference with the liberty of tho subject as that. A man, no matter what his wealth, no matter what his position, could not bring a bottle of whisky into the town for his own use without becoming thereby a criminal. It was resolved that the petition be taken round among the inhabitants for signature.