The Hastings Standard Published Daily. FRIDAY, JAN. 29, 1897. A NEGLECTED INDUSTRY.

Hastings Standard, Issue 233, 29 January 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

FRIDAY, JAN. 29, 1897. A NEGLECTED INDUSTRY.

For the cause that lacks assistance, l ; or the wrongs that need resistance, l-"«»r the future in the distance, And the nood that v;e can do

It is becoming more apparent each year that the farmers of this country must increase; the variety of their products to maintain the average of their profit,-'. Wool, frozen meat and butter have served well, hut with descending prices the task of making prolit is more; than many can accomplish, and as we have said, to l<eep pace with the times our farmers must increase the number of their products, so that when one fails another may help to keep up tint level of pJ'olitj. The farmers of Victoria have discovered the value of raising a variety of products, for it is only by such methods that that colony has been able t,o for;.<e ahead. One product which is wholly in fleeted here and which appears to have been profitably raided in Victoria is oilseed. Linseed and sunllovver oils, of Victorian production have be< n pronounced by London experts to be of excellent <(iia!il\; the former bein;.? worth CM) 10s per ton and the latter 1:17. What Victoriaha.s accompli; lied hurtdy the farmer *of New Zealand can do. It has Ucii proved by practical e\-jH-riment« that linseed will grow to perfection in this colony, vi i bounteous crops and m this fertile district both linseed and huullowir seedji can Lt* j/ro wn. Here then is it chance for town and country to com bine and .!.111 a new industry, Oil mili- will nut need much capital to erect and work, if only the farniura will pnxliue sufficient of the raw materia).

'l b, ttialter la woitb considering and we shall bfc gltid to have tiie opiaium of luwts oUitr* qu Uiv

AT GRASS. | Theke is very little nutriment to be obtained from the indolent numerals of a census return but now and again a close student may find something to arrest his attention. According to the Registrar General's figures, there are 103,193 wives in the colony, and popular imagination will at once conclude that there are the same number of husbands ; but in this instance any such conclusion would be wrong, for the figures of the census returns disclose the fact that there are only 102,736 husbands in the colony, or rather we should say this is the result of a census taken in April last year. It will be seen by a comparison of the figures that on the evening that the census was taken, there were 457 less husbands than wives, or to say the same thing in a different form there were 457 "grass widows" in the colony on that particular evening in April, 1896. Where were the 457 erring benedicts ? Were they absent from home and from the colony by leave of their wives'? How many of them ivere guilty of the too common practice of " bolting " and leaving their wives and families to the tender mercies of the Charitable Aid Boards. The manufacture of " grass widows " is not confined to this colony, but is an industry that is common to all the colonies. The heartlessness of those men who desert their wives and children cannot be too strongly condemned, and that the practice has assumed serious proportions is evident by the fact that it is to form one of the subjects for discussion at the approaching Conference of Premiers at Hobart next month.