CHRISTCHURCH NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4440, 21 August 1901, Page 5

CHRISTCHURCH NEWS.

Special to the 'Times.” CHRISTCHURCH. August 20. With reference to the statement of the Premier in the House to-day regarding the millers’ ‘‘trust,” Mr Buchanan, of the Xe.v Zealand Flounnillers’ Cc-openi_ live Association, Limited, imormed a representative of Truth ” that the Government had ‘‘got hold of the wrong end of the stick.” The association, he said, was not a trust, but a circulating agency, which, b\- circulation of the flour, saved expenses in the way of agents and travellers. It tud not operate in wheat. Each miller bought his own wheat, and carried on his business as he had done before the association’s inception, and the so-called trust merely circulated the flour for the millers to save expenses without curtailing the output, but dividing the cost among the millers belonging to the association. Someone had been talking rubbish iu the House about taking off the duty from outside flour. The solo effect of this would ho to bring down the price of wheat. In the present instance the association would go quietly on with its business, and wait to see what measures the Government might intend to take. The Farmers’ Union movement has excited a lot of interest here, and some opposition. Among those who object to tlffe method adopted is the “Lyttelton Times,” which iu an article to-day sums up the position as follows : “The Farmers’ Union, or, rather, the politicians who are husviug themselves in its formation, has, in spite of the earnest warning of the Premier, raised the ory of town against country, and it is only natural that the workers’ organisations should prepare to meet the attack. The whole position is, of course, most deplorable. Whatever indiscretions the workers may have committed in the past, they have never been foolish enough to imagine that the farmers’ interests were necessarily opposed to their own. They have cheerfully consented to the expenditure of large sums of public money in the promotion of land settlement, and in the development of the agricultural and pastoral industries of the colony. They have scarcely raised a murmur against the country being over-repre-sented in Parliament, and have never objected to the four largo cities having no direct voice in the deliberations of the Ministry. _ They havo ; in short, frankly recognised the claims of the country party to special consideration, and have loyally assisted in pressing them upon the attention of (ho Government. But now a number of interested people who aro anxious to climb into power on the shoulders of the farmers are trying to mako the rural electors believe that the workers’ unions are at the bottom of all the troubles that afflict the country, from the low price of wool to the prevalence of influenza. They have deliberately sought a quarrel with the workers, and it is only natural, as wo have already said, that the latter should resent their aggressive attitude. We hope, however, that the town members of the House of Representatives will rise superior to the petty spirit displayed by their opponents, and offer no obstacle to the Premier’s proposal for giving further assistance to the struggling producers.” The City Council has decided tcTfloat a loan of £6OOO locally for sanitary and other purposes.