RABBIT TRAPPERS' ASSOCIATION.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1136, 15 January 1903, Page 5

RABBIT TRAPPERS' ASSOCIATION.

MEETING AT MATAURA. A meeting was held in Perrott's Hall, Mataura, last evening to consider the advisability of forming a Rabbit Trappers' Cooperative Association. There were some eighteen gentlemen present, and about a dozen trappers were represented. Mr W. A. Thompson, of Gap Road Meat Preserving Woiks, presided, and in explanation stated that the proposed Association had nothing whatever to do with the Trappers' Union in Dunediu. He had acquainted the Trappers' Union with his proposal.but they had taken no notice of his telegram. He hoped that those present would be unanimous in their views. The proposal he put before them concerned trappers only, and of course those who had the handling of trappers' rabbits, carting, etc. These only would be allowed to join the Association. He had been appioached on the question of an Association by several trappers in the south. They had conceived the idea and wanted information on the subject; they came to him and asked ■whether he could make any arrangement by which he could receive their rabbits. He

. could haidly do that, however. In tbe AssoW oiation each trapper was asked to take at i pLleast one share, for which he would pay £1 t cash ~.nd £4 in periods extending over six , [ months. The Association would be regis- j tered as a limited company, and thus shareholders would be fairly safe, as they conld not be called upon to pay more than tbe value of j their shares. In each centre the trappers •would select a delegate, and these would meet and confer with him and make arrangements for taking over his plant. He would take a number of shares himself, as he had every confidence that the ventuie would prove successful, and he would undertake the management at a fixed rate of commission. He was well acquainted with the trade, having been engaged in it for many years. He would put all the details of the business before the meeting of delegates, and give them any information required. He .had already made sales for this year (which Jie was prepared to hand over to the Association) which had proved profitable. At the meeting of delegates it would be decided what price was to be paid trappers, and the directors could meet each month and tbe trappers ■would be paid. Prices might increase from time to time. As at present rabbits would be passed at each count!y centre. The Association would pay on the shares, and the btlanca would be divided pw rata amocg the rabbiters. An association formed on those lines he considered could be worked very cheaply. He calculated a reduction in working expenses at about 3 per cent. If the ratibiters associated they would place themselves in such a position as to demand a fair price at Home for their rabbits. About half the total number exported from the colony were from Southland, and it was his ambition and aim to have control of these. They should go through the Association. The Association of course would take care that they were uniformly graded, and that all taken w?re first class. They could secure the best graders, who would be willing to work for the Association, a* it would be to their interests to do bo. The speaker, in conclusion, stated that he had addressed similar meetings at Lumsden, Riversdale and Mandeville. where Wrappers wete unanimously of the opinion ihat the Association should be put on a footing. At the three centres named ho had been promised 100 shares. J To Mr Meikle, Mr Thompson stated that / the capital he proposed raising was £30)0 k He was prepared to find money to advance f against the rabbits until lh9y were shipped. This wonld be part of tbe agreement, from the £3OOO capital proposed there would re-rc-quire to be deducted a number of shares : the price his business was valued at. The valuation being reasonable, he would accept it. In tbe meantime he considered that the Association might take rabbits as far north of Mataura as they safely could. Such a scope would be sufficient for such an Association as proposed to deal with. However, it would at any time be an easy matter to pass a resolution increasing the share capital of the company. He wished to bring all trappers under under the influence of the Association. Mr Meikle : Are there any other exporters assisting you in this project ?—No. Mr Thompson further stated in reply to questions that the idea was the outcome of negotiations he had bad with the Mandeville rabbiters. Tb6 project was not for the object of taking the wind out of the sails of the Union. He knew at least 200 trappers who would have nothing to do with the Union. Directors would le able from sales to tell exactly how much they would be able to pay rabbiters—(id, 7d, or 8d as the case might be. According to the latest advices he had received from London the present wholesale price there was 9d to lOd ; for 2Jrlb rabbits they were giving 7d or Bd, and for a lower grade Cd to 7<l. This was the top market price at that present time. He desired that the headquarters should be at Winton, at the Gap Road works. Mr Meikle: What do you expect you will be able to give this year?— That has no bearing on the question of tbe Association. Mr Thompson said that 7sd could not be given for rabbits except from a costermonger's barrow. Mr Meikle thought that a larger area of conntry should be worked. Say from Oamaru to the Bluff. k J Mr Thomson said that could be discussed W later. He had no objection fo coming back ' to Mataura at a later date. He desired the local trappers to hold a meeting, and select a delegate, or two, if required. He did not think that shareholders would have to wait Jong for a bonus. Mr Meikle moved a hearty vote of thanks fo Mr Thompson. His only objection to the scheme was that it was too small. The idea was a good one, and should have been at- . tended to years ago. k The motion was carried unanimously, and .the proceedings closed.

At the J.P. Court this morning, before Messrs Mesßrs Martin and A. A. Mac Gibbon, Js.P., a* local resident, for whom Mr Pr.ppelwell appeared, was fined 5s and 7s cdsis for allowing his chimney to take fire. For permitting cattle to wander two resident', for whom MrNeave appeared, -we each fined Is per head and 7a coßts. Xn one of the cases Mr Neave said he bad ir,l«;mie.- J to test the matter as the cattle Lad been left in charge of the Borough's officers at tbe abattoirs and had got oat of the paddock there. They had been impounded and the pound fees paid, and now his client was being sued also. George Geildes (Mr Neave) claimed £7 8s f om A. Tareson (Mr Poppelwell), who put in ,i counterclaim. After going into accounts judgment was given for piaintiff for £2 83, with coats £1 7b.

A coal train broke down at Areola, Illinois. The inhabitants, who had been without coal for weeks, pillaged the train, threatening to lynch anyone who interfered with them.

A Chinese proprietor of a laundry in Chicago has starved himself to death in the Provident Hospital. He had bee:i commanded by a secret society to commit suicide, and chose starvation as the method.

A remarkable instance of fecundity in sheep is reported as having taken place at Carrum, Victoria. Two.comeba.ck ewes have produced ten lambi in eleven and a half months, and all lived and thrived, two of the lambs having been sold recently at 17s GJ per head. Another ewe on the same farm has produced eightjambs in two years. The ' Waikaio Argus' says: On one of the hot days last week Mrs Nicholis, of I'ukekura, was astonished to see a sparrow's nest at the top of a gum tree on her place in a blaze. The übiquitous proprietors of the nest must have commanded td a match amongst their building material, and the heat ignited ic.

The demand for tbe surrender of firearms by natives in South Africa seems to have been attended with great success. Over 20,000 guns have, according to a ' Scotsman ' correspondent, been given up. Many of the guns handed in by the Kaffirs belong to the .iomain of archaeology, and are woitb what the Government paid for th;m as curiosities. The correspondent suggests that the Government should offer a small assortment of the most quaint and curious of tbem to museums at home and in the colonies. Tliey are really the weapons—the " roers," or elephant guns, the blunderbusses, musket?, and other archaic firearms—with which Portuguese pioneers, Boer vjortrekkers, and British settlers redeemed South Africa from barbarism. It would be a pity to destroy them all.

The annual excursion of the Waimea Plains school children and their parents will be held on Wednesday, January 21, the train leaving Croydon at 0.15 a.m., and calling at Otamita, Mandeville, Pyramid, and Waitnea, and leaving Kiversdaie at 7 a.m. The fares are very reasonable for the excursion, and may be seen by an advertisement in another column. Tickets may be bad from the chairmen of the various school committee.; mentioned above and from Mr J. Sniiill, of Riversdale. The excursion is one which should specially attract the parents and children of the district, as it affords a means of seeing one of the finest of New Zealand's, cold lakes and tbe magnificent mountain scenery that surrounds it. Some days ago it was reported in the cable news that a man who was ekeing out a precarious living in Sydney had been left a million of money. The name of the now wealthy man i 3 William Newton, and his occupation was that of a wood carter. ton, who sprang from a good fnmily, ussd to tell his friends that that he was entitled to a lot of money in Chancery, and intended to prosecute his claim with the aid of Mr Wm. Urooke, a son of the proprietor of the ' Morbus Times.' His identity has now been established, and he comes in lor a fortune of ±'1,000,000. 'J he claimant has received the news as a matter of course. Want of means precluded him from establishing his claim earlier. Some years ago a reward of £IOO was offered for information as to the claimact's whereabouts. Mr ftewton cxp-cts to return with his bister and relatives in February to the old hjme in England. The sanitary authorities of Libau, in Russia, have closed a sausage factory in which hoises, dogs, cats, rats, and mice were used for making the finest "poik" sausages. The proprietor ot the factory was in league with the municipal employees, who supplied the matsrial, and had become a millionaire in the course of a few years. Mrs J. K. Lawson, who is contribuliug a series of " Impressions of America " to the ' Dundee Advertiser,' writes thus in her latest letter regarding her visit to bait Lake City : "But," 1 said to a party with whom the subject was being discussed, " polygamy has been abolished for several years now." Tbeie was an expressive shrug of the shoulders.

'• All the same, it is practised just as betore the law forbidding it was passed. Only it is now shebeeneu instead of open. 11l tell you how it is. A man may not have more than one wife in his house, but he can have another wife in another house—one ne.\t door—and over the way, and so on. A friend of mine who wished to see a Mormon on business was directed to a house in the suburbs, one of live adjoining each either. ' Does Mr So-and-so live in this house'?' he inquired of a little boy on the doorstep. 'He lives in all of 'em,' was the astounding answer." The Mormons, Mrs Lawson sUtes, are " growing and multiplying as fast as ever."