COMPLAINT PROM A COUNTRY SETTLER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7904, 24 March 1887, Page 3

COMPLAINT PROM A COUNTRY SETTLER.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib,— am a settler in this favoured land, the *• Sunny South," as Mr. J. 0. Firth is constantly calling it, and I suppose that I ought to be happy, prosperous, and contented, but while the management of our railway affairs remains in suoh competent hands as at present, all the blessings of the "Sunny South" are seriously marred. Like many other settlers, part of my produce is butter, and though not "to the manner born," I bare striven, by the introduction of an improved churn, a butter worker, and a strict adherence to certain rules as to temperature, etc., to improve the quality as far as possible, and my efforts have had a fair measure of success. During the summer, I have sent a quantity regularly to the Freezing Company, and on two occasions received the return, "oil," although the butter was so firm and hard when it left my dairy as to take no impression when pressed with the closed hand through the muslin. I waited on the company, for some explanation, and was told among other things that on several occasions the van containing the butter had been seen standing for over two hours in the blazing sun before the parcels were delivered to them, and this although a siding runs into the works, the red tape reason being that some party has contracted with the railway authorities to deliver all parcels. The utter incompetence and mismanagement whioh this reveals 'are scarcely credible, and the loss arising not only to the settlers, but also to the Company, and the country, oan hardly be estimated. No amount of freezing oan make good butter out of oil, and as the Company export, the produce gets a bad name, and the settler a still lower price. If the statement is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, it simply means that our railway managers are well versed in how not to do it. Our railways do not pay. How could they, if this method of dealing with traffic is general? All our railway people condemn Mr. Vaile's scheme, but it would almost appear as if their reason for so doing Is that if the scheme were adopted, upper officials would have to work, and managers to manage or make way for those who could and would do so. I am, etc., Patience. March 19,1887.