Notes and Comments.

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 1428, 28 February 1911, Page 2

Notes and Comments.

It is often said that people Avho live in glass houses should not throw stones. In its editorial article this morning the M.D. Times twits the Standard with having made a faux pas last night by declaring that, according to Mr James Allen, the leading members of tho Opposition Party could not accept the invitation to go to see the King in his golden crown because they were all "full." Full of engagements was the literal translation of tho telegram from Dunedin. But in the same article in which it gibes at its contemporary the Times seriously informs a shocked public that the invitation limits our members of Parliament to "not more than one wife" ! What must they think of us at Home? Especially after reading the news item about the growing popularity of Mormonism in New Zealand.

The confession was made in yesterday's cable news by the Hon. W. M. Hughes, Federal ' Attorney-General, that under the present Constitution the Government feared it would be unable to fight such a colossal financial organisation as the American Beef Trust. Apropos, some very instructive details of the old-new methods of this Trust are given by the Pastoralists' Review, which reports that the American trust, failing to purchase the works in Argentina owned by British capital, entered upon a new plan of campaign, with the object of swamping the London market. "By this means they hoped to make the holders of shares in these companies sell out, thereby enabling the Trust to obtain a controlling interest. With regard to the recent high prices paid for bullocks at the sales of fat cattle at Buenos Ayres, it is believed that this was part of the plan to gain over the estancieros, and that by paying occasional good prices they would please the producers, and by selling cheaply in London they would delight the public." Of course, that was only to be a sprat to catch a mackerel, for the Trust is not a benevolent institution. Further—and here is where the Federal Government takes warning, as hinted by Mr Hughes—we are told that "many experts believe there is .no chance of making a successful fight against the Trust. The American firms are spending vast sums to gain their end, and the directors of 'British companies would have to consider their shareholders and cave in. The Trust expect to obtain their object within five years. How about Australia and New Zealand ? We know that representatives of the Trust have been in Australia and New Zealand for over a year, and we also know that they are 'on the warpath.' " So far they have been up against a brick wall of refusal every time, but "what cannot be done one way can be done another, iand wo now hear from an authentic source that Swift and Co. are about to offer 7 per cent, guaranteed preferred stock in their business to the stockowners of Australasia. r This is a temxiting bait indeed, and shows what enormous profits they must make to be able to offer such liberal terms." No yronicj.er_ even the Federal Government is atraidf