NOT TOLD TO WIVES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21473, 22 April 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

NOT TOLD TO WIVES

CATTLE DEALERS' SECRETS PROFITS OF AUCTION RING " You can never get a dealer to tell his wife what he has made in the market," observed Mr. Justice McCardie at Kingston, England, recently, in referring to transactions in cattle. The case was one in which Sirs. Marjorie Louise Keeble, who sued Sir. Frederick White Woolley for damages in respect of tho death of her husband in a motor accident, was awarded £2OOO damages. Her children were awarded: Donald (aged 11), £200; Marjorie (aged 4), £350; and Trevor (aged 2), £450. Judgment was entered accordingly with costs. Counsel for Mrs. Keeble said that her husband was killed in a motoring accident as a result of the admitted negligence of Mr. Woolley. Mrs. Keeble said that she was 36. Her husband was a butcher at Chiddingford, Surrey, and since his death she had managed the business. 'ln addition to other items, her husband allowed her about £1 a week for dress. Her husband had other interests which she knew nothing about. After hearing figures regarding the profits of the business, the judge remarked, " If the dead man drew nothing for himself the net profits would not suffice to pay the widow the £250 a year which she says she got." Tho widow, recalled, said that sometimes her husband returned homo and said that he had had a very good day. Counsel: That might mean cattle or horses P Counsel for plaintiff: More likely cattle than horses. " It might have been a ring or a knockout," commented the judge. " Dealers agree among themselves not to bid, and a beast which should fetch £l6 or £l7 is knocked down for £ll or £l2. Then it goes to the man who really wants it. He has got it for £5 or £6 less than the ordinary market price, and so he has to pay those who aro in tho ring, say, 10s each. So it goes on at markets. " That is the way in which farmers are being hft all over the country, and no legislation, oddly enough, despite a certain Act of Parliament, has been ablo to stop it. The jury may take it not from me, but from their own knowledge of human nature, that there aro no documents connected with these transactions; they are made in cash."