WAITOMO COUNTY COUNCIL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 436, 3 February 1912, Page 7

WAITOMO COUNTY COUNCIL.

FURTHER LOANS APPROVED. The Waitomo County Council office is the headquarters of a great amount of business at present. In addition to contracts in hand to the extent of about £15,000, tenders are being called for further work to the amount of about £25,000. Further loans are also being projected, and the amount to be dealt with during the present season is expected to aggregate at least £50,000. On Wednesday last the clerk (Mr P. Mora) received intimation from the Advances Department to the effect that the Aria loan security had been deemed sufficient for a loan of £3340 which amount had been finally approved. Information has also been received that the amount of £1250 for the Tawanui road and £2OOO for the Caves road had also been finally approved.

The Taranaki Land Board in the last issue of the New Zealand Gazette, states that they have for disposal approximate 23 acres in the Ohura district. The location is part of section 7, block 15, Ohura survey district. In April of 1911 Mr F. J. Shelton went to London representing the New Zealand Producers' Association. His task of securing better facilities for handling NevV Zealand produce was not an easy one, but he persevered with the work. This week he returned to New Zealand for a brief visit, and is able to report that one substantial reform is well towards accomplishment as the result of his negotiations. This reform is in the nature of a distinct improvement in storage facilities at London docks. To a New Zealand Times' representative Mr Shelton said concerning it: "I expect to see a result out of this beyond the estimate of anybody. There is much leeway to be made up." Some indication of the value to the Government and the country of milling rights in the hack blocks was given by Mr James Mackenzie, Commissioner of Crown Lands, in the course of a discussion at the last meeting of the Wellington Land Board. Mr Mackenzie quoted the case of 600 acres of bush, which some time ago were worth £IO,OOO for royalties alone. When a fire went through the iand the rights were worth only about £l5O. Considering the wages paid to labour for taking out the timber and so on the value of milling rights of the undamaged bush to the country was not far short of £IOO,OOO. In dealing with timber land the bo3rd had to consider whether it 3hould dispose of its rights straightaway, in cases where settlement was going on around so that the protection of the timber was being lost. It is not everyone who is capable of selecting a herd of good dairy cows, and to do so may be said to be a gift and can only be acquired to a very limited degree from reading, practical experience being only of value. Some people possess this skill naturally, others acquire it through constant practice, and others never acquire it at all. Towards the close of the eighteenth century the Duke of Northumberland of that dry received a present of a bull and a cow from the West Coast of Africa. The cow died, but the bull lived about Soyn House for many years, and Mr Forsyth, gardener to the duke, said he had often measured it after it attained full growth, and when it was enormously fat, and from the ground to the top of the shoulder it measured exactly 2ft. It was a neat, well-formed, and beautiful creature of its kind, with horns shorter than those of ordinary bulls, being two or three inches long and very sharp. A position of some interest to butter exporters has arisen in connection with a recent shipment of "Snowflake" butter by the Timaru Dairying Company (says the Timaru Post). When a the consignment reached Home it was claimed that the brand "Snowfiake" was an infringement of a trade mark already registeed at Home, and the butter was seized and held by the Customhouse authorities. The upshot is that the Timaru Company have to go to the expense of expunging their brand from 60 tons of butter, and putting another in its place, which is anannoying and expensive course. The company calim that the butter being clearly marked as New Zealand butter, the infringement of, or injury to, the Hometrade mark in question is more a matter of imagination than of actual fact. In any case, tha fate of the consignment, clearly demonstrates the necessity for the New Zealand Government making itself acquainted with the Home trade marks, so that New Zealand exporters may in turn become acquainted with them and avoid a repetition of the Timaru Dairying Company's disagreeable experience.