The Waimate Advertiser. (Established 1898). Published every evening since 1914. SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1927. NOTES OF THE DAY.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 9 April 1927, Page 6

The Waimate Advertiser. (Established 1898). Published every evening since 1914. SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1927. NOTES OF THE DAY.

The Hou. D. H. Guthrie, who passed away recently, will not figure in history as a great empire builder; but he will be remembered by a wide circle of friends, and even by acquaintances who met him only in his official capacity, as a kindly, just man who strove unceasingly to do his duty towards his day and his generation. The greatest burden laid upon him after his promotion to ministerial rank was the i portfolio of Lands, which he administered during the clamour of Parliament and public for soldier settlement, more soldier settlement and still more soldier settlement. Mistakes enough, as the whole world knows, were made in the Government’s attempts to satisfy this demand; but for these Cabinet as a whole was responsible, and Mr Guthrie [ was among the foremost and most uri gent in demanding prudence. In the embarrassing days that followed, Mr Guthrie’s services, made valuable by experience and observation, always were at the disposal of preplexed settlers who found themselves over-bur-

dened by the Government’s good intentions towards them, and who to-day will be among the sincerest mourners. During the last year or two Mi' Guthrie, owing to his declining health, had been unable to play any active part in politics, but he had continued to take a keen interest in public affairs and in the development and progress of the country he had served so well.

A letter received in Wellington from the head of a big mercantile house in London, obviously not written for propaganda purposes, thiows a good deal of light upon the butter position in the great metropolis at the end of February. The writer explains, with out blaming any one, the disturbing feature of the position was the small quantity of the new season’s New Zealand butter actually soid, and that this was making the trade very nervous as to what niigh happen when European butter began to flood the market in the etarly summer. Australian, Argen tine, Danish and other European butter.-,' were going into consumption closely to date, and New Zealand butter alone was accumulating. The position at the tune this authority wrote was that with an estimated production of 65,000 tons New Zealand hnd sold in the United Kingdom only 10,000 tons, leaving 55.000 tons to be marketed. This had happened during a period which comprised four to six weeks of the beet selling time of the whole season. If sales were not brought up to their normal average during the next few weeks there would be, the writer predicted, a very dangerous surplus to carry over and the producers would be the losers. Since this was written the Dairy Board, of course, has jettisoned its price-fixing policy and ths position has much improved; but the future still seems to hold its perils.