Untitled

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 261, 31 July 1929, Page 14

In the old days round about Auckland, especially in the pensioner villages like Otahuhu, a pot of fragrant musk was one of the commonest sights and scents in the cottages (states the “Star”). Generally a pot of it, trained up a tiny ladder made of thin sticks, would be placed in a sunny window, between the glass and the muslin curtain. To-day there isn’t such a thing in the world, and there is a standing offer of £lOOO for the man who finds a plant. So it was stated at the conference of the Horticulture Institute. A man w’rote from Whakatane saying that a noted London horticulturist had written out, asking for information, as he understood the musk grew wild in New Zealand. Mr. G. A. Green, the organiser of the institute, said he never saw a plant of musk by the roadside without getting down to smell it, just to see if there was any of the scented variety. Mr. Horton, the noted nurseryman, said it was no use looking for it, as there was not a plant left in the world. Oddly enough, although it was so common years ago, there wasn’t a scented plant to be found to-day. There was wild musk in any quantity in New Zealand, but it had no scent. He mentioned that the “Daily Mail” had a standing offer of £lOOO for anyone who could find a plant that gave off the fragrant scent of the old-fashioned kind. Disputes involving stoppages of work during 1928 in Great Britain and Northern Ireland numbered 302, the lowest total in any year for which statistics are available. Hundreds of golden carp were taken out of a pond at Daws Heath, Rayleigh, Essex, after the are brigade had pumped it nearly dry to fight a fire in farm buildings, the owners of which were at a wedding,