PALMERSTON ITEMS.

Evening Post, Volume LXVVII, Issue 36, 12 February 1909, Page 3

PALMERSTON ITEMS.

WHERE CO-OPERATION FAILED. COTTAGE GARDEN COMPETITION. CBy Telegbaph. — Special to The Post.] PALMERSTON N., This Day. Co-operation amongst farmers is not always an unqualified success. Threo or four years ago the Manawatu farmers formed a Veterinary Association, which was intended, by working co-operatively, to afford the members expert assistance in cases of disease amongst stock at email cost. Tho Farmers' Union initiated the movement, and three hundred members, at a guinea apiece, were secured. A veterinary surgeon was engaged, and he found plenty of work at a greatly reduced scale of fees for subscribers. His salary was £200 per annum. Id the second year of tho association's existence, many of the members defaulted with their subscriptions-, and the association's guarantors at the bank, about twelve in number, were called upon to make good about £100 of the snrgeon's salary. Part of this money has since been recovered, but the guarantors are still about £50 cut of pocket. At a meeting yesterday, it was resolved to briny a test case against one of the defaulting subscribers, with a view to enforcing payment against the rest. The weather changed suddenly yesterday ; the muggy, sultry heat of the past three weeks gave place to light showers and a wintry temperature, necessitating the lighting of fires in most houses. The late Mr. James Smith, of Rongotea, bequeathed £100 to the Paimerston Hospital and a similar sum to the RoAgotea Wesleyan Church.

The Manawatu Horticultural Society's Show now in progress has a special feature in the way of a competition for cottage gardens. Points were awarded for general plan, cultivation of borders, state of hedges, ditches, grass, and general appearance. There were four entries, and the judges went round in a motor car yesterday and judged them. J. Winton's garden was placed first, with a total of 87 point's out of a maximum of ' 100. H. Hollier was second, with 79 points.