EDITORIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1196, 1 February 1895, Page 5

EDITORIAL NOTES.

It was admitted by all who attended the Ram and Ewe Fair last week on the Petone Show Grounds that the bidding was the dullest ever known since the fair was established, and the prices the lowest on record. It was fully expected that very low prices would prevail, but even the most pessimistic had their gloomiest predictions more than verified. Line_ after line was passed in during the early part of the sale without the persuasive eloquence of the auctioneers being able to elicit a bid, or if they did it was so much lower than the vendor’s expectations that it was not seriously entertained. The attendance of sheepbreeders was large, but it was evident soon after tlie commencement of the sale that only a small percentage of those were buyers.

Many causes were assigned for the non-success of the sale. Some shook their heads ominously, and said there was no money in the country, but forgot about the thousands that were passed through the totalisator on the previous day; many mysteriously hinted that the Government were in some way responsible for the low prices; others, more logical than their fellows, put it down to the low rates prevailing for wool and the lifeless state of the frozen meat market. In fact all kinds of reasons were brought forward to account for the dullness of the bidding. It may, however, be safely assumed that no one particular cause can he assigned for the depreciation of values, but that several causes combined in bringing prices to a very low ebb.

In the first place it can hardly be questioned that the qubtations for wool at present and the small margin of profit to sellers of frozen meat werb

the principal factors which guided buyers in fixing values, and that the prices were ms inly a reflex of the news transmitted by cable on commercial matters during the last six months. Another important cause for the dullness in prices is that the supply of stud sheep is in excess of the demand. Some fe y years ago the breeders of stud sheep in the Wellington provincial district could be counted on the fingers of one hand. To-day every extensive sheep : owner, whose land is at all suitable goes in for raising what he believes to be high-class animals The quality of the flocks in the North Island had been for many years much inferior to those in the South, but thanks to the enterprise of a few, who imported the best stud sheep from Home, the introduction of high-class animals from Canterbury and Otago and the development of the freezing industry, a very marked change for the better has taken place in recent years.

Formerly the breeding of stui sheep was confined to a few, who imported the best animals at considerable risk and expense, for which they were amply rewarded by getting fancy prices for the progeny of such animals. They had a monopoly of the market and fully appreciated their opportunities by paying the greatest attention to the selection of their flocks When the number of so-called breeders increased the natural result followed. The stud sheep increased considerably in numbers, but in proportion depreciated very much in quality. Many of these inferior sheep have been exhibited from time to time at the country agricultural shows, where they have secured prizes, not so much because of their merits, but through the absence of sufficient competition. The owners were thus led to believe that they possessed animals of merit and were induced to go in foretud breeding on an extensive scale, from seeing how profitable a business it was for some of their neighbours

The result of all this is that there are now more sellers than buyers and the fairs are stocked with numbers of inferior sheep, which are as much out of place as a plain farmer would be at a court function. The crowding of inferior sheep into stud sales has a very detrimental effect on the tone of the market. When pen after pen is passed in the auctioneers get disheartened, the buyers become doubly cautious in their offers, whilst the owners are visibly disappointed, and attribute the cause to everything but the right one. Nowadays the dairyman who offers his customer milk adulterated with water instead of the genuine article is prosecuted, and the butter maker is prevented from sending an inferior article to the London market under the guise of best dairy. Then why should we not adopt some method of grading sheep, so that animals only suitable for the butcher may not be catalogued under false pretences at stud sheep sales. Such an arrangment would be in the interest of the buyer, and especially in that of the genuine breeder of high class animals.

It is of course out of the question to pretend that the Dairy Act can be suspended. It'.cannot he suspended either for Mr E. M. Smith or for anybody else. The Act is on the Statute Book, without any discretionary powei’, and has to be obeyed. To ask the Government to suspend its provisions is to show ignorance of the laws made by our Legislature, and in fact is the sign of a spirit of tyranny in every degree thoroughly reprehensible. It is tyranny of this kind which by ignoring laws has at various times filled the world with blood and

misery. That is a part of the teaching of history which has never been brought to the notice of some of our legislators. Fortunately there is a Government strong enough to resist pressure from these quarters. Mr E. M. Smith is a legislator of much honesty of purpose, but the demand he has recently made to the Government shows him to be at times as liable to be carried off his feet by sentiment as the crowd of his colleagues who made such a deplorable exhibition of themselves about the Chemis case. Fortunately, the case is far from hopeless for the Taranaki farmers. It does not want a suspension of the Constitution to help their case. It wants a quickening of the minds of the railway authorities and the Manawatu Railway directors. The night train should be a night train. We showed the other day that it is partly a day train, usually hours behind its time. That train must be up to time, no matter how great the inconvenience to the railway officials, public and private. It is useless for them to try and make us believe that they do their best. The main feature of the railway system of this country is, that in comparison with more populous countries, there is practically almost no traffic at all. There is absolutely no difficulty in running a night train twice a week to time. Any official that says there is must necessarily be unfit for his position. The only official who can be listened to is the one who sees his way to keep time.