Lake County Press. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY. The trust that's given thee guard, and to thyself be just. Arrowtown: May 7, 1903. TIMELY TOPICS.

Lake County Press, Issue 1063, 7 May 1903, Page 4

Lake County Press. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY. The trust that's given thee guard, and to thyself be just. Arrowtown: May 7, 1903. TIMELY TOPICS.

* In an important farming centre like the Wakatipu it seems strange that an attempt has never been mado to form an agricultural and pastoral society. Take for instance our neighboring county, Vincent— with probably a great deal less agricultural and pastoral country—it has a show at Cromwell annually. Well, why not Wakatipu ? We have a farmers' union, which has, or should have, for its object the advancement of the farming industry in all its branches, and the improvement in stock generally. We are sorry to say the local union is, to all intents and purposes, practically dead. One or two attend the quarterly meetings, and then the business done is of a very ordinary nature. Let us wake up, shake off our drowsiness, and make our local union a real live one by taking immediate steps to arrange for an annual show at a suitablo dato during tho year. The benefits to be derived from an annual event of the kind are well known to the farmer an.d pastoralist, and we feel sure tho success that would attend tho first show would make farmers wonder why they did not mako a move in the direction indicated long ago. Talk the matter over, and Lhen put your meditations into action. In the Magistrate's Court, Christchureh, an important point in connection with old age pensions was submitted on the question whether a certain applicant, who has a life interest in a proporty under a will, was to bo assessed as owner, the regulations under the Act providing that " a life tenant of any land must bo treated as owner." M l ' Stringer said the regulation was contrary to the provisi ms of the Act itself, which provided that the accumulated proporty of an applicant for a pension must be assessed according to the beneficial ostate or interest therein, and tho regulation was therefore ultra vires. Mr Beetham, S.M., took this view, and granted a full pension. This ruling will affect a largo number of cases. THE codlin moth has again this year played havoc with the fruit of the district. Experiments of various kinds have been tried by local gardeners to copo with the pest, but so far with littlo or no success. However if tho results of recent experiments are as claimed by a correspondent of tho Melbourne New Idea, there will be rejoicing in the ranks of fruitgrowers generally. It is said that the days of the woolly aphis, the codlin moth, and other fruit pests are numbered. Tho now process of fighting orchard insects is unique A hole or socket is bored into the trunk of tho tree, and in tho opening is deposited a compound, to bo taken up by the sap into tho branches of the tree. It is claimed that not only are fruit and tree pests thus destroyed, but that tho tree, by its absorption of the injection, is made healthy and thriving. The compound injected into the tree consists of gunpowder, saltpetre, copperas, and sulphur. Pulverised and mixed, and applied according to a patented process, the ingredients'are said to bo readily absorbed by the tree. Thoroughly diseased apple and peach trees experimented upon were purged of their pests, and the quality of the fruit improved, and the trees gicw sturdy under the tonic effect of the insecticide.