CORRESPONDENCE

Northland Age, Volume 23, Issue 35, 17 December 1923, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

THE NEW PORT SCHEME. (To The Editor.) SIR, —Your issue of November 19th, contains an account of a meeting, “The Harbour Question before the Chamber of Commerce.” Captain Hammond, of the N.S.S. Coy., is reported to have stated “ that if a deep water port were formed they would put on a vessel suitable right away.” We have at Kaimaumau a suitable port with ample deep water for a good passenger boat, not only ample water, but wharf and sheds rotting for want of use. The settlers of Waipapakauri, Kaikino, Waiharara and various other tributaries of the Awanui Harbour are parfectly satisfied with Captain Tom Walker and his capable management of the “ Tahawai ”as a tender; then let us see if Captain Hammond’s promise can be kept, and at the same time let 11s see how a better steamship service can benefit the North, for a better steamship service will be required now that the Far North Railway has been “ scrapped.” At the same meeting Mr. W. Grigg is reported to have stated :

“ It was moonshine to talk of an oversea port.” Very well, for the time being I will acquiesce and agree with Mr. Grigg, that is only a partial eclipse to the following: “Personally, he favoured Graham’s site.” Fortunately, a warning note was sounded by Mr. Vernon Reed when he stated that “ If they diverted the river’s course they might create shoals in other places.” Without any expert advice we are aware of the fact that shoals will be created whether the river’s course be diverted or not.

Mr. W. Rose is reported to have stated that people were getting tired of the discussion; if he is alluding to the ratepayers of this County he is perfectly correct; the ratepayers are feeling very tired about being “ bit ” with a £54,000 loan. Then let Mr. W. Rose, Mr. C. B. Michie, and Mr. W. Grigg bring forward this pet scheme tor a site at Graham s as soon as they like, and when a poll is taken to borrow money for a macadamised road to “ Graham’s,” and for the purchase of several acres of property, erection of wharfs, sheds, and dredging for turning room, they will find the ratepayers ready for them. I am etc. W.. Stanton. Waipapakauri. 26/11/23. [The above letter was squeezed out of previous issues. If Mr. Stanton will read the reports in this tssue he will see that Graham’s is now pretty well ruled out by the report of Mr Blair Mason. —Editor, AGE.] “BE FAITHFUL UNI O DEATH AND YE SHALL RECEIVE THE CROWN OF LIFE.” (To the Editor.) SIR,—We have read, and we have known of the parlous condition of women, of dogs, and of degraded nations who have been subject to brutal, callous and tyrannical treatment at the hands of their oppressors, and of their faith and loyalty untd the last: of the woman who has lied with her last breath to shield her murderer, of the dog which has licked the hand that battered him, and the slave struck down in defence of the tyrant. Thus it is with the farmer, gripped in the strangleholds of the financial ghoul —his markets are rigged, the value of his land is deflated, his credit is bludgeoned, the Courts are set in motion against him. The Banking combine on the one hand will tell him that his property is useless for security, and on the other will hound on their satellites to strip him of everything he may possess. We are told that money is tight, and yet several millions of money were added to the hoards of the Banking combine last year, to 1

await opportunity for favourable j investment! Ninety per cent, of the farmers do not own their farms —they don’t own the mortgage on the farm—the mortgage owns the man. Therefore the New Zealand fanners are as low in the social and political scale as some poor African slave, for they have bartered away their freedom, and their children’s patrimony, and laid themselves at the very feet of their financial taskmasters. And yet millions of money are poured into the Dominion every year in return for the thousands of tons of butter, of meat, and of wool that we send away. Do the Banks grow all this wool, and meat, and butter ? No ! And do the lawyers and civil servants grow any of this wool, or butter ? Is there anybody else in the community besides the farmer and his man, who has a hand in it? No! And yet the farmers who are the producers of all this wealth surrender it to the care of a gang of dyspeptic clerks, who in return for their doubtful offices, inflict the most extortionate exactions against that section of the community on whom they are dependent for the very breath of life. The only remedy for this unjust and degrading state of affairs is the organisation en masse of the farmers throughout the Dominion.

That there are farmers who are prepared to muddle along under the yoke of their financial oppressors simply because Dad and the gaffer did so before them is evident enough, but to those farmers who have some moral or religious consolation for living through this financial Gethsemane —to these last who look not for rewards in this ,mundane sphere as the bread winners of the nation, but rather to where “ Neither rust or moth doth corrupt nor thieves break in and steal,” to these last who still uphold the standard of their oppressors we may well say, “Be faithful unto death and ye shall receive the crown of life. I am, etc., H.J.D.A. WILD CATS AND OTHERS. (To the Editor.) SIR, —In a leader this week the “ Northlander ” credits the AGE and its readers with likening Bell and his schemes to the wild cat. Sir, it would be an insult to the cat; he approaches nearer the barber’s cat, which is all wind and no whiskers, and even this would be doing an injustice to the species. Bell points grandiloquently to the fact that railway construction proceeds apace in different parts of New Zealand, but not in the Bay of Islands; also that Coates is going to give the Waipu people a bitumen sealed road. But here again no mention of a Bay of Islands road. When he infers that the reclama'tiotrof swamps, hydro-electri-city, dredging oj/ unnavigable rivers, providing lime, scientific survey of soils, etc., are part of his schemes, Allen, you are too modest; it’s not like you; why not go the whole hog and claim you beat Captain Cook to it. I am, etc., A Friend. Kaitaia. STARLINGS ERADICATING TICKS. (To the Editor.) SIR,—In the AGE of the 10th inst., I am correctly reported as having expressed the opinion that, “ Although what Mr. Arnold Puckey said, might apply to farms on the flat, I did not think the starlings would be so effective on hill country, where there was an abundance of more appetising food,” etc. Since we find that the starlings have begun among our stock, and are very materially reducing the ticks, I feel that it is only fair to Mr. Puckey to qualify my former opinion accordingly. Thanking you, ‘ I am etc. Chas. B. Michie. Kaitaia, 12/12/23. t -.W ' ■ .