CHRISTCHURCH NEWS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 January 1929, Page 5

CHRISTCHURCH NEWS

FINE SPELL FOR FARMERS.

(Special to "Star.”/.

CHRISTCHURCH, January 11. Thousands of pounds will be saved 1 to farmers in Canterbury as the result of the present spell of fine weather, which, though rather late in making its appearance, has not come too late to mend the great part of the damage caused by the protracted rainy period. During the last two or three days, | growth has dried up wonderfully well. Farmers literally have been making hay while the sun shines. Those who had their hay cut in between rains will especially welcome it, as it will enable them to get the hay into stack Before it becomes too soft. On some heavier

land there are quite a number of instances where windrows are covered by new growth grass that had sprung up. In some parts of the Ashburton and Southbridge districts and north of Christchurch, the hay crops have been seriously affected, and the hot weather will not do a great deal of good. The feed value of the hay that was previously cut is bound to be somewhat lessened as the result of bleaching caused by the constant rains. Pasture land will respond vigorously to the warmer weather. For some time it has been in a very sappy state and a bit rank. As the result, its fattening qualities have been seriously impaired. Now, however, its growth will be checked and it will become harder. Cereal crops such as wheat and oats

will benefit immensely- The dryer conditions will to some extent prevent the spread of fungoid diseases, which up till now were beginning to have a very serious effect. Crops that have been looking rather sick will revive, given favourable weather from now on until harvest time, and should produce excellent yields. A. lot of oat crops have been harvested and left in stook, but wheat will be some time before it is ready for cutting. The dry, warm weather, however, will stimulate ripening considerably. Crops that have been forced down for any length of time, of course, will not recover sufficiently to 'rise, but fortunately on the whole there is surprisingly little prevalence of this. Sheepfarmers, also, will be able to resume their in-

terrupted shearing operations once again, as the sheep will rapidly dry out. WHITE BREAD POPULAR. ' Christchurch people must be either very unheedful to good advice, or very indifferent to their health. The food reformers launched the city’s last Health Week demonstration with the slogan : “Eat wholemeal bread,” but their cries have fallen on deaf ears. Enquiry from various persons interested in the baking trade reveals the fact that the sales of white bread did not even tremble under the attack.

Dlr If. C. Jacobson, manager of the Sanitarium Depot, says that the wholemeal sales are no better than they were before, though the holidays usually lead to a decline in sales in any case. There has been an increased demand for small wholemeal loaves, but this he ascribes to the influence of a psychologist at present lecturing in the citv.

Enquiries for wholemeal went up a little at a time, says Mr IT. Walston, manager for Woodward’s Bakery. They are now very much as before. Many customers are away on holiday, so they are making less white bread, but as much brown as usual. This shows that the popularity of white bread is declining, but this only corresponds with the gradually-increasing of wholemeal, which the firm has experienced during the last four years. Other bakers say that they fail to notic eanv immediate result from Health Week. LEGAL HOLIDAY ENDED.

The legal profession has now finished that happy time of the year when for a fortnight they throw-away wig and gown, cast aside bib and tucker, and forsake the gloomy archives and halls of Justice to seek forgetfulness as ordinary mortals. ‘ Banisters return bronzed from fishing trips and motor tours, and the Junior Bar resumes after a sojourn in craggy hills, where it tramped forty miles per* day with a heavy knapsack ,and got close to Nature. ’ All these healthy pleasures are now forgotten and are displaced by ex parte Pohehorney Simminson Dealt versus Paddlefoot and another. Wills, leases, gavelkind, mortal sin and tort are the main topics of conversation. Zane Grey and Edward S. Ellis give place to Antrim on the law of rear reflectors and Butterworth’s exciting tale of how, the Great Western Railway established its stattus quo, with res ipse facto in the Queen’s Bench Division. The surest sign that the legal fraternity has finished its holiday is that a tearoom in the city is filled once more with busy law clerks.

THE MAYORALTY. It is probable that the selection of a candidate to contest the Mayoralty against the Rev. J .K. Archer will be made by the Citizens’ Association at an early date. The selection is understood to lie between Messis E. H. Andrews ami J. W. Bean land, two members of the present Council. Mr Andrews has not previously been a candidate for the Mayoralty, but Mr Beanland has been. Mr Holland has refused to enter the contest, on the ground that he is a member of Parliament. He was Mayor of Christchurch from 1912 to 1919, retiring from the position in the latter year.

CAR THIEVES BUSY. Car thieves are leaving traces of their operations all over the South Island. To-day four “missing” cars were reported. On January 3 one of these free travellers appropriated a Morris Cowley car belonging to E. Beaven, Tomes Road ,and drove it to Nelson, where it was found abandoned on January 5. Its number plates were then missing. They bore the figures 120—752. At the same time another Morris Cowley disappeared from Nelson. To-day this car was found abandoned at Timaru, bearing the number plates of Heaven’s car. Waimate is conveniently near to Timaru, and to-day another MorrisCowley was missing from Waimate, but this time it.was an Oxford model, wine coloured, with the numbers 127—416. This may be the work of the same man, or he may be extending his holiday in a three-seater Dodge, No. 122 —980, which disappeared from Timaru the day before yesterday. SMOKE FROM AUSTRALIA. Although there are no bush fires in New Zealand, a heavy pall of smoke

is covering North Canterbury to-day. From Rangiora, it is impossible to see the hills. The smoke haze has also been marked in Christchurch, where there has been a cloudless sky, but the heavy haze of smoke obviously has been blown over from the Australian bush fires 1500 miles distant. MINISTER v. PRESS. Trenchant criticism of the methods sometimes adopted by newspapers in New Zealand when discussing and reporting politics and politicians was made this morning by the Minister of Health (Hon. A. J. Stallworthy)- The Minister’s remarks concerned chiefly a report on a recent speech of his in Auckland. In this he had occasion to mention “a Divine cal],” during the explanation he was making of his views on service to his country. “An Auckland report, in a newspaper took up the remark, misinterpreting it and giving it a construction totally wrong,” complained Air Stall worthy. “I had merely used that expression to illustrate that a man may receive a call to serve his country, and may rightly regard the call as a Divine message. It is not by any means the only time I have been misreported,” said Mr Stallworthy. “In common with other politicians and public men, I have to tolerate deliberate misconstructions on innocent remarks during election campaigns. Many, nearly all the newspapers adopted a vbry partisan. attitude, which creates only strife and bickering. It is not only in the editorial columns. A man may be attacked by an undue display of a re-

mark in its wrong setting. Such a remark can be given an utterly wrong and ambiguous construction.“Such a policy on the part of the Press is unfortunate and regrettable,” said Air Stallworthy. “The members returned to the House at the last election form a more representative and better type of politician, so far as most candidates for Parliamentary honours are concerned. Politics are fairly clean and straightforward in New Zealand, but the partisanship and bias on the part of the newspapers is not only unfair to political opponents, but tends to stir up ill-feeling and bickering.”