NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 127, 25 November 1935, Page 10

NEWS OF THE DAY

Shows Lose Favour in U.S.A Agricultural and pastoral shows as they are known in New Zealand have gone completely out of favour in the United States, according to Mr. C. N. King, vice-president of the International Harvester Export Company, who is now visiting New Zealand. The reason for this he explained to a reporter of "The Press" at Christchurch on Thursday. "Every farmer is pretty well familiar with what is on the market in the way of agricultural machinery; advertising has made quite certain of that," he said. "The tractor is no longer a mystery "even to the boy on the most remote farm. The American landowner is kept closely in touch with agricultural and pastoral developments and- with the progress of machine-farming technique, so that he has no need to go to shows for his information." These, he said, still abviously served a valuable purpose in. New Zealand, and he was greatly impressed with the displays of livestock and machinery at the recent Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Show. Thrill for Australian Tourists. The Tourist and Publicity Department received word this morning from the tnanager of the Chateau Tongariro, Mr. L. J, Bayfield, that at 11 o'clock last night, shortly after those passengers from the cruise of the P. and O. liner Strathnaver who travelled via National Park to Wellington arrived, heavy snow began .falling. There was a foot of snow covering buildings and country this morning, to the intense delight of the Australian visitors, many of whom had never seen it before. It is reported that it was difficult to get the . party away to schedule time—B a.m.—so hot was the snow-fight in progress. It is gathered from remarks passed that the Dominion could not have received a more attractive advertisement, and that next season's winter sports will be attended by many visitors from across the Tasman. "Terribly Homesick." A letter received by the Editor of the "Auckland Weekly News" from Viscount Bledisloe, formerly GovernorGeneral of New Zealand, contains an extract which indicates that Lord and Lady Bledisloe retain very happy thoughts of their stay in the Dominion. The letter includes the following:— "Your beautiful periodical, as it comes along every fortnight, makes my lady and myself long to be back among you all. Every time she opens it in this dull, dreary, damp weather of the Old Land, she says: 'This makes me feel terribly homesick.' And I reply, sadly, 'Ay, ay, I feel the same.'" Trailers for Cars. The general council of the Automobile Association decided on Thursday to support a suggestion that the South Island motor Union should urge that it be made compulsory for cars drawing trailers to warn approaching traffic of the trailer (states the Christchurch "Press"). A proposal before the council was that a sign should be carried on the radiator, but this was not generally favoured." Another suggestion was that a special disc should be affixed to the number plate, and that a green light should be shown at night. The matter will be before the South Island Motor Union at its quarterly meeting in Blenheim next month. Fewer Whitebait. The catches of whitebait this season do not seem to be as large as those of last, judging by the reports received/ and there is a general impression amongst those who have the welfare of the future of this delicacy at heart that some system of licences and restriction of catches i necessary if the small but lucrative industry is to be preserved. For years there has been a gradual falling off in the quantities of whitebait taken. It is estimated that in the most depleted districts they now run in the proportion of 1 to 1000 of their former numbers. This season, apparently, even in districts such as the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, and Westland, where there has been the nearest approach to a maintenance of supply, a shortage compared with last season has been noted. There was a time, when the population was smaller, when everyone could take whitebait without apparently diminishing the yearly run. The worst feature of the position, from the preservation point of view, is that the more the fish decrease the higher becomes the price and the greater the incentive lo catch and market them.