A MIXED BAG.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 139, 15 June 1938, Page 6

A MIXED BAG.

WEATHER, POLITICS AND THE FARM. (By XELLE M. SCAXLAX.) LOXDOX, May 20. This week lias brought us a mixed bag— mixed in many way*. Mixed weather, for instance. The drought. the worst spring drought for nearly 200 years, lias broken, but we have not yet had rain enonjh to ti- fy the farmers and gardener*. One result of this dry weather is to put up the price of milk this week, at a reason when it should have been coming down. The only man I have heard lamenting a'.xuit t'ue rain was the manager of a lirin which supplies winter feed tor cattle, lie has been doing a roaring trade in what is normally his rdack reason. The farmers have been getting it from tin? left and the right. The recurring outbreaks of loot and month disease have had a devastating effect upon /lock* and herd*. Some have been entirely wipe<l out, owing to the stringent regulations, which demand slaughter and burning. During the past few months thousands and thousands of animals have been killed. standstill orders have prevented farmers from moving their stock to markets, and agricultural shows have been abandoned. Yesterday the special duties which had been imposed upon the import of cattle and stock from the Irish Free State, or Eire, as it is now called, werv removed, as the old ouairel has been patched up. and they have "buried the shillelagh." as someone remarked. | i.ast night r-hips on all the routes across the I Iri-ii Sea were laden with cattle and produce, and it was estimated that the amount had increased fivefold* Heavy consignments of butter, bacon and poultry arrived in England this morning, and the prices of live cattle have risen between :?/ and 4/ per ewt in consequence. The settlement of this old dispute will doubtless have many beneficial results, but tlii* sudden increase of Irish imports into the country, where the farmers are already suffering from so many hardships, and even its effects upon overseas imports, arc another pair of shoes. Foot and Mouth Infection. As to the foot and mouth disease, it seems impossible so far to trace the cause of this menace. Many peojde attribute it to infection brought to England on the feet and feathers of migrating birds. There has been a great deal of this disease on the Continent, and as much as it has started near the east coast, where the migrating birds first land, it is thought they may be responsible. As you can't put the birds into quarantine, even if you could catch them, it is difficult to see how a remedy is to be found. Xow that the Three Chilly Saints have been left behind, their festival days corresponding with one of ISuchan's cold "spells, we can look forward to some real summer weather, lor despite the absence of rain, we have had

a return of cold winds. and there lias been a ■•alt in the buying of summer clothes. The draper* have been quite concerned at this latk of buying, and already many of them are starting summer t-ales in a small way; ''opportunity week," they prefer to call it; hats this week, shoe* last week, beach frocks another. Summer is short, and if goods are not sold early too often tliev become dead stock, for next year will bring it* own fashions. It is one of the modern fornix of compulsion. Nothing is made to last long, as in the old days. This morning I was looking at some old Victorian garments, a black corded silk dolman, with talTeta lininsr. and sareenette fiills. It wa> nearly a hundred years old. and the material in perfect condition. Another was a blue satin bodice with bustle. and the lining was white cotton with a pattern of tiny black butterflies. And how elaborately the lionet were stitched into the waistline! Another garment was a black velvet full skirt. the velvet entirely silk, back as well as front. Today they talk a lot about creaseless velvet as ii it were a sort of miracle, but thi-; old skirt had not a create in it. and its etirface had not suffered from a lifetime in a trunk. I>ut these were not in a draper's -hop. but at the Caledonia market. Theatrical and film companies are the only buyers for -uch garments. but it was a jov to see such ■iiiality. It made one think of the nineteenthirties as an a:e of shoddy by comparison. A Lion or a Pup? Changer; in the Cabinet have been the most -lining political event, and there i~ a lot being -aid that never L-cts into print. History alone nil! prove which group is riuht. and whether we are buying peace at a hiLiit or low price, or if we an being "-o!<| a pup." South Atri a, too. ha- been in the lime--I'ght. We had time to cock an eye at their ■ ■lections. and the *»<•<•.".« of the middle-course party has been a relic". And there ha* been a minor gold boom, with new- that another i :ch reef ha* been found near Johannesburg. It. London we seem to sit in the middle, and look out in all dirc-t ion*, and you get positively dizzy turning from this side to that trying to follow events, a- the centre of interest switclies trout one corner of the earth to the other <o suddenly. The alarming increase in the number of eiieap lierinan motor cars beinr imported into tin-; country has rai-c-1 quite a storm. Thev are simply pouring in. and these ears are sold in London chcapcr than they are retailed in Oermany. Is thU dumping a-cording to the Act? One thing certain, they would not l>e coming in at inch a rate if they were not being bought. Here patriot>ui and price have come into conflict, and it would seem that price ha* won.