FIARS COURTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7328, 11 August 1885, Page 4

FIARS COURTS.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sin,—Your correspondent "Double-milled" is wrong in the statement he makes regarding the functions of Fiars Courts in Scotland. The fiars are the average prices, yearly ascerJained_by_the_sherjflLof .the county anclajury,by taking the evidence of farmers and graindealers, of the several kinds of grain of the growth of the county. By these average prices are regulated the payment of ministers' stipend, temds or tithes, rent payable in grain, and prices not expressly agreed upon— e.g., the price to be paid when a farmer sells grain "by the fiars." Fiars prices have no connection with trade, and market prices of bread and oatmeal —which rise andfallin Scotland as in New Zealand and elsewhere, according to the law of supply and demand.

I- think the Emperor Napoleon 111. was too astute a sovereign to attempt to fix by law the price of such an article as bread, and I would be glad if your correspondent would refer me to his authority. • • •■ The origin of Fiavs Courts is very obscure ; but I think they were first instituted to regulate the clergy in collecting their stipends which, as a rule, are payable in grain in Scotland. The proceedings are cumbrous and expensive, and tlie whole machinery being now used almost solely for the benefit of the clergy of the Church of Scotland, will be swept away on the disestablishment of that institution. It would be a mistake to introduce such an antiquated system as Fiars Courts into an enlightened country like New Zealand, in order to regulate prices, as your correspondent suggests; and moreover, such a proceeding would be a direct interference with the freedom of grain merchants and bakers in their business. -—lam, &c,

A. J. Bathgate.

August 10.