94 



is the common experience of all travellers by our roads- 

 that the worst parts are nearly always to be found at 

 the entries of our cities and towns, and that the Capital 

 is in this respect no exception to the rule. 



THE SACK PROBLEM. 



x 



Each year resurrects this problem, which has been' 

 disgracefully handled, inasmuch as not one original idea 

 can force its way through the mass of reports which 

 hangs round it like a millstone. 



This year yet another commission will thrust more 

 obscurity into its solution, another impossible proposi- 

 tion will be evolved, if there is anything evolved, and 

 finally nothing done : the problem will be left again 

 for the coming year. 



Each successive Minister has his pet proposal, one 

 opts for free imports of jute or other sack-making ma- 

 terial, another, as others have proposed innumerable 

 times, the reduction of duties on sacks. A successor pro- 

 poses the adquisition of sacks by th,e Government, the 

 next one advises special loans for sacks, or again half 

 price sacks, the manufacture of national sacks. The 

 proposal of free sacks to all remains yet to be made. 

 This latter proposal will before long be seriously sub- 

 mitted for consideration, for special advances by the 

 State bank for sacks will end probably in the generous 

 annulling of the debts, since, according to the custom- 

 ary pessimistic affirmations from outside, the farmers 

 have not sufficient mone} T to buy sacks at all, and since 

 their local credit is now exhausted there only remains 

 now the duty of the State towards them in the distribu- 

 tion of free sacks. 



What after that will remain for the next minister 

 to advocate none know, for truth to tell every known, 

 idea within the circle of ideas has been proposed and 

 exploded; except the next step be the total abolition of, 

 sacks altogether. In this lies some hope for a new line 1 

 of thought, although tendencies are not discernible yet. 



Bulk handling and elevators would settle the matter 

 once and for ever. 



Sacks represent an investment of over $60,000,000" 

 m|n. in normal times according to competent authorities, 

 that is to say a sum equal to one fifth of the money ac- 

 tually in circulation. One can understand why the pro- 

 posal of free sacks has never prospered, nor their pur- 

 chase and loaning out by the Government, and why the 

 reduction of duties, or free of dnty, so little affect the? 



