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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144777, 6 September 1915, Page 2

Most people have been surprised by the assumption by the Germans that what they are pleased to call their kultnr is of such importance to the world that it must be impressed on unwilling peoples at the point of the sword. We are determined not to have German kultur at any price, but few of us could express in brief what the beliefs are for which so much has already been suffered and for which so many lives will yet be lost. Dr,.lnge, Dean of St. Paul’s, in an article in the Quarterly Review, remarks: “In our quiet way we have all been' meditating on these things since last August, and we know pretty well what our summum bonum is for our country. We believe in chivalry and fair play and kindliness — those things first and foremost; and we believe, if not exactly in democracy, yet in a government under which a man may think and speak the thing he wills. We do not believe in war, and wo do not believe in bullying. We do not flatter ourselves that we are the supermen ; hut we are convinced that the ideals which we stand for, and which we have on the whole tried to Carry out, are essential to the peaceful progress and happiness of humanity; and for these ideas we have drawn the sword. The great words of Abraham Lincoln have been on the lips of many and in the hearts of , all since the beginning of the great contest: 'With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right—let us strive on to finish the work we are in.’ ”

While the Government has been to a great amount of trouble to ascertain what quantity of wheat there is in the Dominion and what acreage is being sown for next harvest, it has not taken any similar steps with regard to cattle. A sheep census is taken every year, but there has been no counting of homed stock tor four or five years, so that it is impossible to fjell whether our herds are being depleted or maintained. It is to be feared that depletion has taken place during the last few years, and if this is so and the depletion is not chocked the position will soon become serious. In 1905 there were 1,810,936 cattle in the Dominion, and in that year 109,297 wore; slaughtered for food purposes, or 6.03 per cent, of the total. In 1910 the number slaughtered was 300,800, br almost IS per cent, of the total of 2,020,171 disclosed by the census. In the following year the slaughterings declined, and still further in 1912, when only 237,696 head were slaughtered. In 1913 the number increased to 269,935, and last year to 299,409, hut as no census has been taken since 1910-11 we cannot ascertain the percentage. Since the war broke out the number of cattle exported must have increased considerably, and the inference is that the percentage exported has reached larger'fighree than ever before. Consequently it is to .be feared that if a census were taken now it would disclose a considerable decrease m the number of cattle remaining in the Dominion. If this is. so it ought to be checked, either by the restriction upon the slaughtering of young female stock, or upon the wholesale slaughtering of calves as soon as they are dropped in the dairying district. In any case the circumstances call for a numbering of the herds during the coming autumn season.