“NO DYING TRADE”

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1934, Page 8

“NO DYING TRADE”

BLACKSMITHS STILL NEEDED. < PLENTY OF WORK; NO MONEY. A denial of the oft-heard rumour that ~ the blacksmith’s is a dying trade was made by a Stratford County blacksmith interviewed by a Daily News reporter yesterday. In his opinion the trade was on a level with any other; there was little enough doing in any trade to-day, he said. Any external difference that might be noticeable he attributed to the fact that the Government was “bolstering up every trade except the essential ones—blacksmithing and wheelwrighting.” It was driving people to cars and lorries, he declared. There were no fewer horses to-day ’ than there were five or six years ago, he said. The horses were not going back, and he believed that there were no more . lorries on farms now than then. “I know | that there are no lorries coming to the I factory up the road here, or to the one I next to it,” he said. That did not mean, I however, that there was as much shoeI ing being done now as there used to be. A number of farmers, for instance, were letting their horses go without shoes, and others were having their shoeing done by travelling smiths. These latter were cutting into the legitimate smithing work by quoting prices that a blacksmith could not approach. They paid nothing for premises, very little for plant, and used cheap American readymade shoes. , “No, I don’t think you could say that the trade is going back any more than any other,” he continued. “Of course, this year business has been practically at a standstill, but if butter-fat came back to, say, Is per pound we would have just as many horses in here as ever . we had—probably more. The price oT horses these days shows that there is a strong demand for them, and the blacksmith’s trade would revive with every other business if prices for farm produce improved.” I The high exchange rate was another factor that hindered the trade. Prices for all imported goods were now so high that the demand was diminished. He 1 gave instances of articles he had to im- ' port of which the prices were up to three times greater to-day than they were 20 ’ years ago. Certainly all that was not 1 due to the raised exchange, but the ex- 1 change had made a great difference re- ’ cently. : “There is plenty of work for us,” he ■ said, “but there is no money to pay for 1 it. The farmer gets his car all right, but 1 lets his poor old Neddy shuffle along as best he can. He seems to think that because he can come down to the factory behind the wheel of a lorry he is better than the man with the horse and cart. However, Tm not a bit afraid. Another few years and they will all be back to horses. This is no dying trade,” j PERSONAL ITEMS. 1 s 1 Mr. W. Smith, manager of the Eltham f Dairy Co., has been confined to his home 1 for several days, having sustained in- I juries to his back. E Dr. Mackay, at present on furlough t from Malaya, is visiting Messrs. Mackay £ and Taylor, Huiroa. Mr. and Mrs. Lobb, Cornwall, England, I who are touring New Zealand, recently £ spent a few days as the guests of Mrs. y Claude Marchant, Cardiff* i Mr. Monaghan, Pio Pio, has returned s after visiting Mrs. E. Bennett. f - v t

DEATH AT CONVENT. DEVOTED RELJGIOUS LIFE. ; The death occurred at the Stratford : Convent on Thursday Slight of Rev. ; Mother Mary St. Francis Xavier at the age of 80 years. The Rev. Mother ,who was Miss Kate Brennan, was bom in Ireland and came to New Zealand in 1880. She received the habit in the Order of the Sisters of the Mission at the hands of His Grace Archbishop Redwood in 1882, and celebrated her golden jubilee of religious profession last year. ' She was a very devoted teacher at J Hamilton, Pukekohe, Ashburton, Nelson ’ and New Plymouth, and was especially ' noted for her zeal, devotion and piety. j i Requiem Mass will be held at the i Church to-day at 9 a.m., after which the 1 funeral will leave for Kopuatama ceme- < tery. J