NEAR AND FAR.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1867, 11 March 1913, Page 7

NEAR AND FAR.

I The official 1 "«tnrus have been re ceived from £h v ? (Jovernment here test at the Katspi v ' { ° n ui factory foj the month of Dee*. m ber. There ar( 227 suppliers to thy fac tory, and of these 85 . to th( Herd-testing Associate u ' m or( correctly, there are 85 J ler ds beinf regularly tested by the Government official there. These 85 fcift. r( ' 9 cornprise 3739 cows. The a,^Oi." a &e P©3 cow of all these for the aK m th oi December was as follows:- -Milt 941 bs. test 3.79, butter fat 35,75. The individual cow showing the best result. gave 14101b of milk at a 5. £ test, producing 78.961b of butter fat At Is per lb for butter fat this eow earned for the month £3 19s. The poorest of the 3739 cows tested gave 2851b of milk, 2.0 test, and 7.41b of butter fat. She earned, therefore, only 7s (id. The highest average for one herd was 11251b of milk per cow, 4.7 test, and 52.931b butter fat. This works out at £2 13s per cow for the month. The lowest herd averaged per cow 8191b milk, 3.30 test, 26.251b of butter-fat, equalling £1 6s per herd.

The frequency witli which lepers eicape from the lazarette at Peel Island, Queensland, is causing a good deal of uneasiness in Australia. A man got away last week, and, though it was supposed that no boat was available, the police failed to discover him after thoroughly searching the island. Not long before this a man and a weman escaped together. There is reason to believe that they gravelled by train to another State, and that in the midst of a populous city they set up housekeeping. The woman subsequently returned, but the man is still at large.

Men and alcohol are both rigidly excluded from the new home for widows, which has just been inaugurated at Havre, France. It is the first municipal undertaking of the kind in France. The institution is designed as a home for indigent widows, who are expected to pay a rental of 50 cents a month if they c*n afford it, if not, no charge is made. The occupants of the home are required to sign a pledge to leave in the event of their marriage, or if their children become able to support them.

While the rest of the community is crying out against the prevailing dry weather, flax-millers and growers are hoping fervently that the I dry spell will continue. "The present weather is ideal for flax-grow-ers, '' remarked a representative of a well-known firm of flax merchants to an Auckland Herald representative. "There is a small proportion of growers—composed of those who have no good creek water for the purpose of washing the flax—that is crying out with the farmer for rain, but it is a very small proportion. The dry weather is absolutely essential, for it is necessary that the flax should be without a trace of moisture when the scutching, the process in which the fibre is put through a teasing machine, takes place. Nothing would please the growers more than to have six or eight months of this dry weather yearly.'' Meantime the farmers in all parts of the province are awaiting the rain anxiously. Reports from the various centres state that the grass is disappearing rapidly, while country settlers are badly in need of heavy rain to replenish their supplies.

The Arbitration Court has awarded £1 a week to James Albert Morrissey, sixteen years of age, of Timaru, who made a claim against his employers. Patrick Downey and John McDonald, livery stable keepers. The plaintiff was employed as a stable boy, and it was part of bis duties to sleep upstairs in the stable at night. On February 22, he closed the stable between 9 and 10 p.m., and went to bed. At 2 a.m. he woke up, and fancied he heard a knocking noise in the stable. He got up to ascertain the cause, and while leaning over the railing lie fell to the floor of the stable, sustaining a fractured dislocation of the spine which resulted in complete paralysis and permanent incapacitation. The court held that the accident arose out of his employment, especially as the defendant Downey had been away, and was expected back that night. By section 9of the Act, the plaintiff's earnings were to be deemed not less than £2 per week, and he was entiled to half that amount. Judgment was at that rate during the period of his incapacity, with £lO 10s costs and witnesses' expenses.