TO-DAY'S SALE.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 1796, 17 May 1912, Page 2

TO-DAY'S SALE.

Unusually largo yardings of sheep and cattle came forward for to-day's stock sale. Buyers were eager, bidcling brisk, and all good stock relis"ed high prices.

Presbyterian Church services for Sunday: Stanway 11.15 a.m., Halcombe 7 p.m.

It has he en decided to form a local Automobile Association in Palmerston. Dr. Wilson being elected provisional president.

A number of persons in Otago are making a living by trapping rabbits and selling them to poultry farmers, who utilise them as food for fowls.

The steamers Maunganui, Maheno, Moeraki, Corinthic, Victoria, and Atua should be within wireless range of Wellington to-night.

At the Supreme Court sittings in Christchurch. yesterday, Walter R. Sadler, convicted of using an instrument for unlawful' purposes was sentenced to seven year's imprisonment.

Mr G. V. F. Mann, director of the New South Wales National Art Gallery, has arrived, in Wellington to view the Baillie collection of pictures, with the object of making some purchases.

Mr David Ziman,_who has been connected with the New Zealand Cohsolielated Goldfields Company since its formation, returned to England yesterday by the Corinthic, and will probably not return to the Dominion.

The Advisory Committee of the New Zealand Farmers' Union is to meet in Wellington on Tuesday next to fix the date for the Dominion Conference. It is expected that the conference will be held about the end of July or early in August.

Professor Mills, of Milwaukee, has abandoned his intention of proceeding to America to take part in the Pr.esidential election campaign. He has consented to remain in New Zealand as national organiser for the United Labour party.

The Mayor of Taihape states that so great is the progress of the town, that in 36 years, owing to the receipts from municipal enterprise, Taihape would be .raite-free._ _ And, owing to the lack of municipal enterprise, where will Feilding's debt be ' even in ten years?

A meeting of business men held in connection with Industries Week in Auckland passed a resolution expressing alarm at the proposed starting of Chinese furniture factories in the Dominion anel urging the Government to ■take steps to prevent the lowering of the standard of one of our large inelustries.

In addition to Premier Mackenzie, Messrs E. Newman, D. H. Guthrie, D. Buick, and J. H. Escott, Ms.P., and Messrs Reakes, Cuddy and Wilson, of tho Agricultural Department, have also accepted invitations to he present at the banquet to be tendered to the Farmers' Union delegates at the Provincial Conference in Palmerston on May 28.

When the school football grant came before the New Zealand Rugby Union's meeting at Wellington last night, a discussion arose as to the best, means of popularising Rugby with hoys. Various members urged that more good would be done by more attention to coaching (than by an increase of the monetary grant. Eventualy it was decided to increase tho grant from £100 to £150.

Addressing an agricultural conference recently, the Tasmanian Chief Inspector of' Stock. Mr T. A. Tabart, emphasised the importance of growing fine nierino wools, which ivere becoming scarcer and dearer. In the opinion of leading buyers, he said, it was believed that fine wool, which wero now worth lod to 16d per lb, would soon rise to 2s per lb, as the demand was increasing and the supply diminishing.

Mr David Ziman, a London financier, well known in connection with the Reefton mines, has left for England. On the success of Mr Ziman's mission to London will depend in a large measure the future development of the quartz , mining industry in the Reefton and Blackwater district. . He "takes several properties homo with him, the chief of these being a. scheme to' float a syndicate with a capital of ' over £50,000 to work tho Prohibition mine at Waiuta.

A burning tree, which fell across Ellis and Burnand's timber tramway at Manunui, near Taumarunui, the other day, caused disaster to a string of trucks which were travelling down the line, piling them up in a heap. Two men, named Kirkton and Bone, were riding on one of the trucks, and both were thrown "off. The former received serious injuries, his thigh being broken, his hand injured, and his face cut in many places. The wounds were so serious and numerous that the dressing occupied three hours. Kirkton was conscious throughout. He is now progressing favourably. Bone escaped practically uninjured. Sir Kenneth Anderson, chairman of the Orient Steamship Co. and Lady Anderson j>assed through Auckland last week en route from Sydney to England, via Vancouver, by the Makura. Sir Kenneth, when seen by a reporter, said that Ec had been paying a periodical visit to the leading ports of Australiaj three years having elapsed since his last trip. Asked for intelligence of the shipping world interesting in this country, Sir Kenneth said that his company was interested in the shipping of Australia far more than it was in that of New Zealand, and therefore he felt that it would be encroaching on other preserves to discuss affairs relating to the Dominion. An enterprising Gisborne firm is reported to have completed a good stroke of business by the aid of wireless. A message was cabled to Australia and. transmitted to the party interested, then aboard a steamer, from Auckland, by wireless. The transaction was confirmed througn the agency of the steamer's wireless equipment. Another firm had cabled to Sydney to await the steamer's arrival there, and were thus forestalled Try lie wireless message. •

Mr Duncan McGregor, the well known "'All Black" footballer, returned from England hy the Aarwa, after an absence of four years in the Old Country.

Roads throughout the King Country (.says the Te Kuiti paper) owing to the recent rains are reported to be in a very bad condition. On the main road to Pio Pio some very trying .experiences during the past week wero endured by carters. After leaving the metal half loads could only be taken, whilst occasionaly it was impossible to get through some places without having to further unload. A few days ago it took eleven horses to pull a ton and a half out of a bad hole. Stores of all kinds could be seen in heaps along the road.

Apropos the present craze for the knitted coat—or "golfer," as it is popularly known—a London correspondent, 'writing ioarly \\a Mavcih, says: "Quito 90 per cent, of the women in London this winter have sport, knitted coats. They are comfortable and pretty, but the vory latest eccentricity of fashion in this respect is an atrocity resembling a man's blazer, with stripes loud enough to drown any conversation. They are supposed to be specially adapted for seaside wear, though why you should make yourself more hideous at tho seaside than anywhere else remains a. mystery."

"Will you allow me to ask you a question?" interrupted a man in the audience. "Certainly, sir," said the lecturer. "You have given us a lot of figures about immigration, increase of wealth, the growth of trusts, and all that," said the man. "Let's see what you know about figures yourself. How do you find tho greatest common divisor?" Slowly and deliberately the orator took a glass of water. Then he pointed hie finger straight at the questioner. Lightning flashed from his' eyes, as he replied, in a voice that made the gas-jet quiver: "Advertise for it, you ignoramus!" The audience cheered and yelled and stamped, and the wretched man who had asked the question crawled out of the hall a total wreck.

"I notice," says the London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, "that there is talk of caseinmaking plants being put up in New Zealand. Before that step is taken it would be well for the dairy people to acquaint themselves with the present state of things regarding the output of that article. Some time ago there was a shortage of it, and plants were erected all over the world, with the result that the market has become flooded. Casein, used for industrial purposes, is only wanted in small quantities, and is easily overdone as to production, and this is the case at the present time. The price of casein varies according to quality, and the country of production; it ranges from £20 to £-8 per ton."

A case of a very uncommon nature was ventilated at the Magistrate's Court, Wanganui, tho other day, when a husband sued his wife for maintenance. The plaintiff in his day had been one of the best-known professional riders "over the sticks" in New Zealand, and, in the words of his counsel, had had more bones broken than any man in the Dominion, and as a result was in very poor health. After he had married he made over his property at Feilding to his wife, and she later mortgaged it to finance him in an hotel at Levin, the license for which he had to transfer to his wife, and as she was now evidently "lord and master" he asked the Court to make an order for his wife to support him. After hearing a considerable amount of evidence (says the Herald) the case was dismissed.

If all the expectations of Mr C. J. Watson are realised, a daily paper •owned and controlled by Labour unions will add its voice to the Federal election cries in Australia in May next year. Mr Watson, who is chairman of directors of "Labour Papers, Limited," says that so far the result of the organisation has been that 82 unions have definitely decided to support the scheme, while many others have the matter under consideration by ballot or otherwise. "We have received in actual cash between £63,----000 and £64,000. In addition to that, further sums, amounting to about £28,000, are promised by contributing unions, to be available within the next six months. The prospects of getting the minimum amount of cash required are very bright." The company has 'purchased a, site in Pitt-street, Sydney for its offices. A. sum of at least £125,000 is needed.

The Irish language is said to be dying out, but a witness at the Magistrate's. Pourt, Christchurch, proved that in some parts of Ireland it is still flourishing. The witness got into the box, but- was unable to give any but the most fragmentary evidence, owing to his limited acquaintance with English. On being questioned he burst into a voluble chorus of musical Isish which soundeel something like Italian. The Magistrate addressed a police officer, a compatriot of the witness, and asked him to interpret, but the officer, although fairly well acquainted _ with the tongue, found himself unable- to followthe witness's idiomatic phrases. Speaking about the matter aferwards, the officer said that, while in somo parts of Ireland the Erse tongue was as .extinct as the elodo, in others, notably in parts of Kerry, it was .the only language spoken. In his native town, he said, the people on one siele of the river spoke nothing but Irish, but on the other side English was thestaple tongue—a curious, illustration of the habit of the older peasantry not to venture far afield.