NOTES AND COMMENTS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 22 August 1919, Page 3

NOTES AND COMMENTS

The West Coast Refrigerating Company, with a paid-up capital oi £32,----384, has solid assets woiui £8o,(X>o. Although most of this is represented by oonereto buildings, plant and machinery that, is in first-class running order, th© directors this year decided to write off £7638 in depreciation. Th© company, therefore, should be an a particularly sound financial position.

At the instigation of the Eltham branch of the Farmers' Union, officers of the Agricultural Department are just now taking soil samples throughout the Eltha-m county. A certain number will be taken from the higher lands typical of triis class oi: country, and others will be faken from the swamp and lower-lying lands. The n\ain object will be" to determine the limes content of the soils.

Cows are now coming in. fairly quickly, and there are indications of an early spring and of the dairying industry soon being in full swing again, fepeakmg generally, the cows are in much better condition than last year and farmers are meeting with 'very little calving trouble.

"A glorious success," was the manner in which the supervisor of manual education (Mr J. P. Kalaugher) described, at a meeting of the Auckland Education Board, the recent classes tor farmers at the Ruakura State farm There were in attendance throughout the week sixty-eight farmers from all parts of the province, in addition to eighteen returned soldiers and fifteen cadets, who attended the lectures and demonstrations. Owing to the fact of the Department granting the use of the newly-erected returned soldiers' building, forty-five of the farmers were accommodated at the rarm. "I have never met a keener or more enthusiastic body of men," said Mr Kalaugher; "they listened to the lectures with the greatest interest, and afterwards plied the speakers with questions."

Reference to the statement of the city engineer, in a letter from New York-, that as a rule the roads in the united States are maintained by landowners whose property abuts on the roads, was made by the Mayor (Mr J. P. Luke). He said that conditions in Wellington were entirely different, and personally he did not think owners of property in the city streets would be prepared to pay anything beyond their rates towards maintenance charges. Incidentally, Mr Luke mentioned that statutory power bad been given to local bodies concerned to tax -motor vehicles using the Hutt road, as a means of raising funds for its improvement and maintenance. How the motor vehicles were to be taxed had not been decided yet, hut perhaps the best way would be to tax the tyres as they came into the country. " Even then there would arise the' difficulty of allocating the proceeds among the different local bodies of the country.