News and Notes.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8197, 26 September 1906, Page 2

News and Notes.

Cheltenham Dairy Company .are giving their suppliers 10 J® per lb if or butter fat for the month of September.

N;S:W. Government reached about the fool limit, last week,, when it stopped a motor car oa the Queensland border under the tick regulations. —Sydney Bulletin.

A male teacher recently appointed to the charge- of the school at Motu, Poverty Bay, has resigned owing to .the only available accommodation costing more than the salary he received.

A large totara tree felled at Mangakahia, North Auckland, about sixty years ago, was split Up the other day and found to be as sound as the day it was cut down.

A Home correspondent says:—Some time ago Mr R. H. Hooper wrote a series of articles on the New Zealand dairy industry. These have now been translated into French, and are appearing in L'lndustrie Frigorifigue, the leading French organ of the refrigerating trades.

The Lancet has turned the cold eye of science on our daily dish of strawberries, and has found the fruit a favourite resting place for air borne poisons. It suggests that before they are eaten strawberries should bo washed in clean water, and says the process would not injure them in the least.

It is very rarely that such an absolutely symmetrical coincidence can be recorded as that of six births which took place on board the North German Lloyd liner, the Grosser Kurfurst, on the voyage from Bremen to New York Three mothers gave birth to six children, and the happy events are classified as follows: —First-class, one child; secondclass, twins; third-class (steerage), triplets.

By the last San Francisco mail news has come to hand (states the Outlook) that the Rev P. C. Durward, M.A of the United Free Church of Scotland, is coming out to New Zealand. Mr Durward, who has been advised to come to New Zealand for the sake of the health of his young family, should prove a valuable addition to the scholarship and pulpit power of the Presbyterian Church. He will arrive in the colony about the end of October.

For several years past, the catches of blue cod made tit Stewart Island and Foveaux Strait have been on the decrease (says the Western Star), and it will only be a matter of a few years before fishermen will havo to go further seaward to procure this much relished fish. An old " salt " has given it as his opinion that it is due to the importation of trout to our rivers, as the latter are now plentiful along the whole coast line. Last year a party of fisherman did some trawling in Taewaewae Bay, arid for ono day alone over two tons of trout were procured, some of which weighed up to 261b.

The extent to which the population of this country has profited at the expense of the sister States was indicated at a recent social gathering in Gore to the players who visited there to indulge in a game of Victorian football. About 60 persons were present, 40 or more of whom were Gore people, and with a few exceptions all had at ono time or another resided in Victoria. A proportion of these were New Zealand born, and had gone over to Melbourne during the boom period, but found their way back to their native soil. But the majority were Victorian natives, who left the land of nativity for New Zealand, and are now permanently settled here.

The following extracts from the letter of a New Zealacder in Edinburgh, especially the reference to the development of a twang among bur people, of which we have been unaware, will be read with interest:—l was standing in the Quadrangle the other day and a man came up to me and asked some directions, etc. I thought he was a .New Zealander, and he turned out to bo a doctor from Christchurch. Did you ever know the New -Zealanders have certain peculiarities ? In the first place they generally have a greenstone pendant, and in the second place, their accent is usually unmistakeable ; it is a sort of modified American twang which people say is rather pleasant than otherwise.

At a recent banquet in Melbourne, Colonel Price attacked the Commonwealth Governmont. He had, he said, recently received a letter from General Pole-Carew, which he would not read, but which nroved the shocking perfidy of the Commonwealth Government in connection with the choice of an officer to command the Commonwealth forces. A gentleman who had been Prime Minister had aßked him about the value of the letter, and he (Colonel Price) had replied, " About £10,000. I will keep, it. I fiave got you on toast, anyhow." Unfortunately, they had not got the right man out there. Those who* had not such knowledge and experience as himself could not get behind all the tricks played and the friction that existed. After arguing strongly in favour of a volunteer system of defence for Australia, and referring scathingly to men who entered the force to earn " cow money," Colonel Price spoke of the Defence Department as doing " a corrupt, dirty, detestable thing."

Some examples of how aggregations of holdings have, happened within his own experience ware given by the member for Masterton. Mr Hogg said that in his district some years ago a man took up a holding of 260 acres under the Act of 1892. Scon afterwards he secured, the transfer of an education reserve of 200 acrqg, then of a small, grazing run of good land (1000 acres). • and subsequently two areas of 260 and 200 acres each, making the total acquired in a few years of 2020—0r quite enough for 10 homesteads, in Mr Hogg's opinion. There was also the case of the son of an English clergyman, who he thought was an absentee at the present time. This settler started with a section of 640 acres, and then acquired holdings of 800,100, 345 and 180 acres, totaling 2065 acres. Yet another man bought out six small farmers, leaving six empty cottages, and ho now has 1200 acres, every acre being good for farming.

A strange statement is being circulated about the hen laying competition which is being carried on near Blenheim for some time past. The Gisborne Times, which has some " inside information," says that an organisation of speculators in Blenheim started a private speculation under the high sounding title of the " New Zealand Egg laying Competition;" The scheme waa a prudent ono on their part, for each of the one hundred competitors whose sis. hens occupy one of the hundred pens has to pay ah entrance fee of two guineas, and all the Gggs belong -to the syndicate, which'

thus starts with, a nucleus of two hundred guineas. All tljey have to do is to feed the fowls and sell the eggSj which last year brought them in: a sur- . plus of about 3s per bird, which was • sufficient to pay all the; prizes 'awarded and more. Being on - friendly terms with the Government, they applied for ( and were granted the free services of a poultry expert for a whole year, who resided at the place and attended to the work which the syndicate ought to have paid for. This gentleman's salary and that of his assistant must have amounted to at least £200. This is a matter requiring investigation. Says the Taranaki correspondent of the Canterbury Times:—"There are evidently a ; good many factory people who believe the butter market at home is to maintain its present firmness. Whereas two or three weeks ago the agents of commission houses were, deploring their evidently fruitless mission in search of consignments, all producers mostly being prepared to discuss only a straight out sale, a change haß come over the scene. Quite a number of factories, on later consideration, have decided to consign, and one well-known firm's agent informed me to-day that he is almost certain to secure at least 1500 tons on consignment. Though a few sales were reported during the week at lid, Eltham and several other large concerns still hold out, and unless buyers spring another fraction several of these factories also may consign the bulk of their output. It is, however, extremely hard to draw dairy, factory directors at this stage; one might as easily secure plans of a battle from a general's staff. Adviees received by the Government chief poultry expert say that a consignment of chickens graded by the department and shipped from Auckland last season brought from 8s to 10s a pair. A later report refers to the birds as particularly good ones, and strongly recommends development of the trade in New Zealand, chickens and ducklings of similar quality and finish. The birds should arrive from London in the period from Ist March to the 31st May.