LOCAL AND GENERAL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3438, 3 March 1932, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

"We have to-day a generation which does not want to work too hard. They want to enjoy themselves first and pay for it afterwards," observed Mr. J. S. Barton, addressing the Napier Chamber of Commerce last week. Mr. Barton agreed with Mr. H. A. Wanklyn that there was also manifest a great lack of thrift.

"Who can pay a guinea a bushel and Still sow his land?" said Mr. W. J. Livingstone, at a meeting of the Hawke's Bay Farmers' Union, when the price of Hawke's Bay ryegrass was under discussion. Mr. Livingstone said that exporters of the seed had made the price so high that farmers could not afford to buy ryegrass seed for the purpose of sowing their own land. As a consequence, many large areas in the district were going back. Mr. Livingstone's remarks were greeted with marks of approval by the other members present.

Writing to the Kawhia Settler, an old identity at Otorohanga says: "Recently my attention was drawn to a paragraph in your paper in which it is claimed that a Kawhia lady resident, just honoured with the rank of a Justice of the Peace, was the first to bo appointed in the King Country. Such is not the case, for thirty odd years ago the postmistress here—Miss Steel, now Mrs. Aubin, of Kawhia — was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and I venture to state that she was not only the first lady Justice of the Peace in the King Country, but the first in New Zealand." We can add to this that Mrs. r J. W. Cochrane, of Te Kuiti, was appointed a Justice of the Peace some six years ago.

A London firm of land agents recently sold "a particularly fine" building site in Southgate, North London, at a figure closely approaching £4OOO an acre, but they reported that the price most often obtained was about £IOOO an acre. It was not uncommon not long ago to find quarter-acre sections in the residential part of Te Kuiti sold at about £250, which is equal to the London suburban price quoted.

"How can New Zealand farmers hope to compete with Australian and the Argentine if the exchange rate between Wellington and London does not rise?" was a question asked by Mr. H. A. Wanklyn of Mr. J. S. Barton, after the latter's address to the Napier Chamber of Commerce on the question of exchange rates last week. New Zealand farmers, Mr. Barton replied, could rely on the quality of their goods, which was in no way affected by exchange rates.

An unusual haul from the bottom of the harbour was made lately by the dredger Otakou at Dunedin. t In April, 1930, two chalices and patens were stolen from St. Paul's Cathedral. One of the missing chalices was brought up by the dredge from near the foot of the Victoria wharf. This was a silver one, presented by St. Hilda's College. The chalice was bent and twisted, but 'not beyond repair, and it will soon be restored to its original beauty. " Presumably the thief found that it was not negotiable, and took the easiest method of ridding himself of a dangerous piece of evidence against himself.

The salt-laden atmosphere recently, says the Poverty Bay Herald, is claimed to be responsible for a cex*tain amount of radio interference. Reporting to the Poverty Bay Power Board the engineer stated: "A considerable amount of work has been done in connection with rectifying radio interference complaints, some of which were indicated by the Post and Telegraph Department. It would appear that a large percentage of alleged faults are due to our salt-laden atmosphere coating the insulator surfaces with a conducting medium, which in the process of burning off causes minute sparks, detrimental to wireless reception."

"The keenest analysis of the country's problems that I have ever heard," was the description, given by Mr. J. S. Barton before the Napier Chamber of Commerce last week, of an address he had heard some years ago by a member of the Chinese Soccer team which visited New Zealand. "That Chinese student," he said, "told us that his party was trying to take away from New Zealand the best of what its members saw, but he said that they hoped in China to make machinery their servant, and not their master, as was the case in New Zealand. He observed that New Zealand had built up enormous productive activities on a market which it could hot control, and predicted that the whole lot would collapse round our heads like a pack of cards, leaving us with unprecedented unemployment. It was a great prophecy."

Writing of the "Difficulties of Exchange" in The Times Trade and Engineering Supplement of December 26, 1931, Mr. W. F. Spalding ends his article as follows: "The world, as a matter of fact, does not seem to have advanced much in its endeavours to correct the course of the exchanges, whether by restrictive measures or otherwise, and it is, perhaps, a fitting conclusion to this article to quote the words of a writer in 1644: 'I have lived long in Italy, where the greatest bankers of Christendom do trade, yet could I never see or hear that they did, or were able to, rule the price of exchange by Confederacie, but still the plenty or scarcity of money in the course of trade did always overrule them and made the exchanges to run at high or low rates'."

According to two anglers at Lake Taupo, fishing there has been fairly good during the last fortnight, particularly night fishing. They stated that they had put 30 fish back into the lake in one day, being unable to dispose of them. The fishermen stopped a party of motorists and asked that a bag of fish should be taken to the Hamilton Hospital, a request which was gladly carried out. It has been suggested that if the Government were to arrange for a suitable depot the smoking of the fish caught and its distribution to the cities, it would assist in the alleviation of distress in many centres. As trout, caught under Government license, are not allowed to be sold, it is a pity, it was said, that something had not been done for the distribution of surplus fish during the season.

Experts in the fruit trade in the Nelson district expect to see a new record established for export fruit (says the Mail). In all parts of the district there are magnificent crops of clean fruit, and practically without exception growers state that their crops are heavier than they have ever known them to be. Last week the harvesting of Cox's Orange was in progress. The popular Cox's Orange variety has cropped heavily and the fruit generally is of splendid quality. The apples of this variety beinghandled in the sheds are clean and of good appearance, and growers anticipate a good return from them. Judicious spraying arid favourable weather conditions have combined to produce the largest and cleanest crop the district has known.

"If war broke out to-morrow the country would get the money to fight. During the last war we could organise for the destruction of life; surely now we can organise for the preservation of life by helping the unemployed," said the Rev. A. A. Armstrong (Wellington), at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Christehurch, when unemployment was being,discussed. "What is wanted is the Christianisation of political action, and the only thing is for the Church to exert constant pressure until we get the Christianised politician. The time has come for organisation on a national basis, for the small local organisation is no longer sufficient. Germany knows how to deal with its unemployed young men, drafting them on a compulsory basis. We want something more than mere voluntarism at this time of national peril."

The annual general meeting of the Te Kuiti Golf Club will be held in the Municipal Hall on Monday next, 7th inst., at 8 p.m.

The initial race" of the Te Kuiti Cycle Club's season will be held next Saturday. The race will be over a course of six miles, starting from Hewetson's garage at 2.30 p.m.

"Most people in Court don't tell the whole truth, especially in motor collision cases," observed Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., during the hearing of a case in the Magistrate's Court at Palmerston North.

The Finnish freighter Olovsborg is detained at Williamstown, Melbourne, owing to a among the crew, who refuse to sail for Shanghai. They contend that their articles entitle them to refuse to take the ship into a war zone unless paid double wages.

By agreement a:nong the Christchurch members of the Master Bakers' Association, the maximum price of bread sd.d "over the counter" has been reduced to lOd per 41b. loaf. Mr. C. B. Bofcn, president of the association, said the reduction represented tvopence in the general price, of bread. Severe pricecutting had already recuced the price of certain lines of bresd in the city, and to* such as had bien selling at lOd and under, no further reduction would apply officially. Ihe reduction in the price of flour reily warranted a reduction of no rore than a penny a loaf.

In a recent inspection ofan orchard on the Pakowhai Road, nea. Hastings, a reporter was much imprssed with the economical system of grafting adopted by the owner. Listed of cutting off all the branches o'nthe tree a number of the lower brances were left, which are throwing a substantial crop of apples, while the branbes towards the centre have had "gp»*t , *" established. The're is a furierS. ;

vantage in following this pracce, D§s sides securing a substantial c>p per acre. The stump of a strot tree; if all the branches were san off, would be apt to throw a greatrowth which would smother the gras, but excess of vitality is absorbedn the branches producing fruit. After the grafts have . become welljstablished and producing fruit, thlower branches are then sawn off. Iveral trees, which had been treatetin a similar manner in previous, yea, are giving good results.

North Otago settlers are confring with one another and with th authorities as to the feasibility irrigating to counteract further droits. Whilst most of the farm land»ar Oamaru was parched this surfer, one bright and green spot in he landscape stood out, its grass gin, its sheep thriving. This was Mr\. C Hurst's farm at Windsor. It fcvides a vivid illustration as to e value of irrigation. Mr. Hurst - rives his supply from the Oam* water race. The present question whether other properties share in t benefit, and side by side with th - proposition is another as to the & sirability of cleaning out the Stewar settlement races so as to permit o that disused system coming again in to operation. It is understood that the Unemployment Board is favourable to the setting up of a single men's camp and going on with the. Steward settlement work. Mr. T. M. Ball, district engineer of the Public \ Works Department, paid a visit to 1 North Otago this week, and that may I be interpreted as an indication that 1 some irrigation proposals are being * officially considered..

The committee of economists, which was appointed by the Government to examine "the economic and budgetary position" of the Dominion, has now completed its work (says the church Press) and submitted a to the Prime Minister. The coYiuniiw tee, comprising Dr. J. Hight (chairM man), Professors D. B. Copland, A. H.:? Tocker, and H. Belshaw, and Mr.. A. V D. Park, was announced on February 12, and members assembled in Wellington the following morning. For the next 12 days—until Wednesday I' evening last —they were engaged daily j from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m., Sundays j 'not excepted. Their report was neces- j sarily prepared in haste since the Government was anxious to have it as | early as possible after the opening of Parliament. It will be recalled that one of the most important recom- . mendations the committee was required to make was on the question of the exchange rate. Dr. Hight, who, with Professor Tocker, returned to Christehurch on Thursday, said that no doubt the committee's conclusions would be announced in due course by the Government, although much of the evidence which it received and recorded was, of course, confidential.