Page 6 Advertisements Column 6

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 116, 18 May 1914, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL Owing to the bitter cold and pronounced draughts which crossed the organ in the Town Hall on Saturday evening Mr. Bernard F. Page, tho city organist, was unable to proceed with his recital. The keys felt like ice, and by the time Mr, Page had given his third selection his fingers became so benumbed that he was unable to continue playing, and retired from the instrument. There were between 300 and 400 people present, and their meney was returned at the doors. The members of the audience who were wrapped up in great coats and furs even felt the cold, and there were hone of them who envied Mr.' Page's experience at the organ, where the temperature and cold blasts resembled the conditions of the Antarctic regions. If the City Council does nothing else it should at any rate provide some electric radiators about tho instrument, so that on chilly nights the organist can at least play with somo dein-ee of comfort. The Mayor of Christchurch states that the position in that city as to unemploy ment appears to be much relieved (reports the Sun). He has been told that a number of men have been sent to work on a coal mine property on the West Coast, and he knows that at the last meeting of the council building permits to the value of £30,000 were issued. The work involved thereby he thinks will tend to give a good deal of employment in the city itself. Up to the present the estimate for the Petonc drainage scheme has been exceeded by something over £1300. There are many reasons for this extra, expendi* ture, the main ones being the increase in wages and the abnormal conditions met . with. When the estimate waa drawn up by the sewerage engineer (Mr. R. Fox) it was not known how the old sewers were laid, and it was impossible to make proper provision to cope with difficulties not anticipated. "There seemed to be a general feeliiig at the laßt Palmerston North Dairy Conference," says the annual report of tho South Island Dairy Association, "that our dairy produce is not well handled in London, and that sooner or later an effort must be made to improve matters, but they were not then prepared to formulate any scheme, as all previous attempts had beeh failures. Now, however, they seem in tha North Island determined to do something to prevent, if possible, what they believe to be the Sacrificing of our butter and cheese on the London market, at lower prices than what should rule." It is added that the large cheese and butter factories in the North Island have appointed a committee of leading factory directors from all parts of the North Island to draw up a practical scheme for marketing buttef and cheese. The scales are usually considered to be quite an uninteresting part of a fish, but research by enthusiasts in England has taught that the life history of a fish is to a large extent revealed by the marking on its scales, says ah A.uek« land- paper. Dr. T. Hope Lewis informed the coithcil of the Acclimatisation Society at last meeting that while on a holiday visit to London recently he accompanied Mr. E. D. O'Rorke (formerly of Auckland) to hear an interesting paper read at the Anglers' Club on the subject. Strangely enough, said tho doctor, some of the scales used for the purposes of illustration were those taken from trout which he had caught in Lake Taupo and sent to England as specimens some time before. The expert was able to tell how long they remained in the river after broed« ing, at what period they had gone down to the lake, when they had returned to the river, and, finally, what length of time they had been in tho lake pefore capture. Dr. T^wis added that this line of research apffcared to have great pos&i' bilities. "The margarine trade has inceraaed very much," says the annual report of the South Islahd Dairy Association, alluding to the London market "for the last lour months in 1912 the imports of margarine were 23,765 tons, and for the four last months in 1913 they were 27,156 tons, and no dqubt the British manufacture correspondingly increased. The British agriculturist as well as tho colonial suffer badly from this bogus butter. But it is good, and will always sell readily. It is better than secondrate butter, and most boarders in hotels, restaurants, lodging houses, get nothing else than margarine. The British public evidently don't exactly like to accept margarine under its name, so the British Board of Agriculture has ajinroved of 164 fancy names under, which it can be sold, "Flower of the Village," etc. Some people do actually like being gulled. It is, however, surprising to learn that the British Board of Agrioul> ture actually assists in this way in gulling the public, td tho detriment of those whose interests they arc supposed to foster and conserve. High class butter need not fear margarino, but lower classes must, suffer, and tHe danger is that with _ home separation and increase in moisture, our butter on the whole is not so good as when wo had less moisture and! no home separation. We know we have- some factories in New Zealand whose butter is unsurpassed in the whole world, but not all, we fear. There tteie, then, reasons for the unfortunate trend of the butter market in London." During tPe past few weeks there have been some substantial rises in the Hutb River, _ and on Saturday evening the gauge at the H'u'Ct Bridge registered about 6ft above summer level. These rises have caused a certain amount of erosion, but no d&mago of any consequence has been reported. Boys ! Only twelve days remain in which to win that Motor-Bike. Numbers 18, 76, 383, 366, 70, 219, are in the lead, so "Get Busy." Kirkealdie and Stains. — Adyb.