TIMELY TOPICS

Northern Advocate, 9 February 1935, Page 8

TIMELY TOPICS

! BACON QUOTA MUDDLE. It is at present uncertain whether the Pigs and Bacon ' Marketing Schemes, which (together constitute one of the biggest and most ex- [ pensive of existing agricultural experiments, will survive, remarks “The Times” in a leader entitled “The Bacon Muddle.” Their main object was to increase the output of British pigs by giving the pigbreeder a guaranteed market and price for all 'the “baconers” he could produce. To this end the pig-pro-ducers are represented by a Pigs Board and the bacon-curers by a Bacon Board, and a long-term contract is negotiated between them. The new contract period, the calendar year of 1935, began yesterday, but the farmers’ contracts have not been confirmed by the curers, who complain that, despite apj extended period of grace, an insufficient number of bacon pigs has been promised to fill their factories. There have been mutual recriminations between the two boards, and an adequate central authority is needed to arbitrate between them. Unfortunately, under the scheme, the Ministry of Agriculture has no powers, and the Pigs Development Board, although it was originally described as 'the key to the whole scheme, has not yet, after 15 months, been set up. No doubt some compromise will be reached, but the moral of the story is that it is not possible miraculously to expand the output of British industry merely by clappihg on a quota. <» <?> <♦' 'h WORDS OF WISDOM. If any spbak ill of thee, fly home to thy own conscience and. examine thy heart. If thou art guilty, it is a just correction; if not guilty, it is a fair instruction. — Herbert. <s> -<s> Q ■£> <s> TALE OF THE DAY. A parishioner went to the vicar and asked for prayers to be said for Anna Bell on Sunday. The vicar did so. A few days later he asked the parishioner if the prayers for Anna Bell should be repeated. “No, thank ’ee kindly, sir,” was the reply, “she won last Monday seven to one!”