THE DRAFT ON WOOL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19258, 23 August 1924, Page 16

THE DRAFT ON WOOL.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— Your correspondent with the ingeniously compounded name has shown that your article on tnis matter, remarkable is its figures were, considerably understated the loss to the dominion through the organised “faking” of the real weights of wool. If it had been done by the sellers instead of tho buyers, imagine the howl that would have been raised by the LabourParty over the glaring dishonesty of tho trick! As it is, of course, no assistance can reasonably be expected from that quarter. Mr Massey and Sir Thomas Mackenzie had a unique opportunity a few years ago of restoring honesty to the trade, since it is inconceivable tnat the British Government as a buyer would have resisted any remonstrance against its agents stooping to such juggling with tho scales. They neglected it, however. Presumably tho concealment of the trick to which, as both you and your correspondent have remarked, tho trade has for obvious reasons resorted by a particular arrangement of the form of tho account sales, was not beneath the concurrence of the same agents in the days of tho commandeer. It is significant, and not particularly creditable, variation of the British brokers’ form of account, which at least always avowed in its headings tho imposition of tho “draft.” (If this institution had been invented in the present century instead of in tho time of William Rufus or whenever it was, its first letter would have been a “g.”) Another opportunity. though not so favourable as the lost, ha-s now supervened through a temporary shortage in tho world’s supplies, and unless Iho Sliccnowners’ Association of Australia and New Zealand are really asleep, as your correspondent supposed, there is still a chance for tho establishment of the principle of honest weight in tho trade. But they would have to act together, and there is no time to be lost, for tho Australian selling season is already imminent. “Slogans” are the fashion just now. A useful one for tho campaign might be “Honest weights, and no more rigging of the scales.”—l am, etc., Anti-Graft.