AMONG OUR EXCHANGES

Northern Advocate, 18 August 1888, Page 5

AMONG OUR EXCHANGES

The Hawke's Bay "Herald" condemns as unjustifiable the action of the Sydney Mari« time union, and says : — " They are threatening to paralyse the shipping trade of half a hemisphere simply because they suspect others of doing thai which they themselves boast of doing." Is the depression passing away ? asks the Lyttleton ''Times." Then he quotes the figures published by Sir Dillon Bell, referes to the millions of foreign capital being invested in the colony by the Kauri Timber Company and Midland Railway Company, and concludes that the position i 3 in every way encouraging to look upon. Five men, convicted of smuggling brandy into England from France, have been fined £5,000 each. For all skin diseases the sweet and best cure is Clement and Bentley's Compound SarsapariUa Medicine,— Advi.

In a recent action brought in tlie Resident Magistrate's Court agaiast Amelia Nicholson an order was made for the payment of £4, or three days imprisonment. The money not being pa> d, Mrs Nicholson was taken to gaol on Monday, but an application was at once made, which was successful, that she should be discharged as she was a married woman. A fire at Nelson Creek on Saturday night destroyed Chaughesy's Hotel and two other buildings. The tire originated in the explosion of a kerosene lamp. The West Coal Comuany are increasing their staff by 90 men, and intend doubling their outputs by means of double shifts. It is reported that the company's property is about to be sold to a powerful syndicated David Mabey, aged 10, while crossing the Hutt river on Monday was drowned. His horse fell, and the current carried the rider away. The body has not yet been recovered. During a visit to the Okoia Factory Mr McCallum, the dairy expert, said that the cheese made is too strong, and it is kept until it is too old. For the English market, which should always be kept in yiew, the cheese should be quite new— should, in fact, be shipped as soon after it is made as it will hold together. During the last ten years or so wonien and children have become to a much greater esttent cheese eaters, and they naturally prefer comparatively netv and mild cheese, the result being that a great change has come over the English market. The Auckland Police Court on Monday morning was presided over by Sir William Fox and Mr J. Baber, and when the cases of drunkenness came up, Sir William Fox said he believed it had been the usual practice to fine first offenders the minimum penalty, da, in cases of drunkenness, but as an old soldier he did not beliove in firing blank cartridge, but in letting the enemy haye the bullet at once. The Bench, therefore^ intended to impose the full penalty, and the first offenders £1 and costs, or 48 hours imprisonment. There were four persons fined this amount, and two others who were second offenders were fined £3, or an alternative of seven days imprisonment. The Hobart Mercury reports : — " The exports of fruit to New Zealand are nearly all small lots asked for by the importers of that country in order to test the markets since the new duty has been imposed. The cost of landing a case of fruit in Wellington, with freight, primage" duty, etc\, amounts to 4/2, consequently fruit here •worth 5/ per bushel cannot be sold at much under 10s there.'' This should give In ew Zealand fruit-growers' some encouragement. ATaieri paper has the following :—" Yes, I've been working on the Otago Central ; one of the ' unemployed,' employed at 4s 6d a day. Live on it ': No, we live on rabbits. How did we catch 'em ? Eaty enough. The country is ao rough there that the rabbits dare'nt run for fear of slipping and tumbling into the Taieri. You never saw such rough country. There's not level ground enough for a man to stand on to eat his dinner. I got used to hanging on with both hands whilst at work, rather took a fancy to it ; but I got tired of rabbit. Boiled with onions in a kerosene tin they are quite nice for a time— but rabbit-and-onion stew twentyone times a week got to be too much of a gOod thing. I tell you I got ashamed to look a rabbit in the face, and used to hide behind a rock whenever I saw one coming along. Central Otago weather is as rough as the country, or rougher. The first day I saw out it rained like a waterspout, the wind split my tent to smithereens, and I had to camp under a wheelI barrow. When it's not blowing a gale or raining it's freezing, and you can't have a fire there. Can't afford it. Newcastle coals cost 10s a bag, and none of us had 10s : would not have spent it in that sort of fuel if we had. For cooking ? Oh, there's some scrubby little broom there, about two feet high, as thick as a pipe stem, and a handful to the acre. You may cay the country's cleared ready for settlement, as far as that's concerned, for miles round the camp. Fine days we carried the billy along over the top of tussocks, and set fire to them, and everybody goes out on Sundays to hunt for scrub that had been missed before. Certainly the railway should be made, to give the rabbits a chance to travel into decent country." ; The following important extract from a letter ifrom Messrs. Edward Stavenhagen and Co., London, is published by the Christchurch Press : — " Since our mutual friend, Mr Kunxraerer, gave you his opinion on fine wools, -things iiarre altered Materially. There ' have been great changes In "fashion" and machinery. The class of fleeces washed, short-grown wool, which was once all the go, is now totally neglected. Wools liksXE (in diamond), eveu if they got back to- their old style, would not command such prices in relation to others as they used to be in former times. The wool which is in favour and likely to remain so, is a fine elastic combing wool— it need not be too long ; and if, -with the help of your fine sheep, assisted by the good soil and climate of New Zealand, you can produce a wool of medium length (if rather more than medium length it will be all the better), fine, sound, and elastic, you will have the article which is required. You must shear in the grease, as greasy wools command the best competition. Fleece washed wools have from year to year become worse of sale, and are a drug in the market. We wrote years ago to the late Mr C K. Cox to the same effect, but Mudgee was not the country to produce combing wool, but New Zealand is." ;