PASSING NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8825, 14 March 1892, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

NEW DOMESTIC ANIMAL. A few years ago some of the magazines, under the head of " A New Domestic Animal," gave interesting particulars about the cabiai, an animal which is found in great numbers in South America. Ib is about tho size of an ordinary pig, and an authority believed that tho cabiai would eventually take a place between the sheep and the pig in Europe, and that in many ways it might be substituted for the pig. It appears that the animal can be trained quite easily, and quickly recognises and will follow its master. In its habits it is cleanly, and in shape it realises the normal type of a meat-producing animal, the body being an almost perfect cylinder. The limbs are short and slender, tail and ears aro short, the head only being large. It will feed on all kinds of vegetables and roots, and likes clean water and a soft litter. For an animal of its size it does not consume much food, and owing: to its apathetic habits, the food consumed does good service in the way of nourishment and the production of flesh and fat. SAUCE AND PICKLE FACTORIES. When the census was taken last year there were in this colony twelve sauce and pickle works, forty-one hands being employed. In 1886 there were nine works and thirty-five hands. These works are distributed thus :—Auckland, 4 ; Wellington and Otago, 3 each ; Hawke's Bay and Canterbury, 1 each. Hand power is used at all these works save one—Hawke's Bay, where steam is employed. The total amount of wages paid for the year 1890 was £1633 : male labour, £1078; female, £555. For the same year the va'ue of raw materials used for sauces and pickles manufactured were as follows: —3o2 560 pints sauces, valued at £4366; 49,540 pints and 250 gallons pickles, valued at £1393; other condiments, £648. The approximate value of land, buildings, and plant for 1890 and 1886 are represented by tho following figures :— 1800. 1886. Land .. _ „ £1,885 £1,090 Buildings.. .. „ 2,325 1,000 Plant SSti 695 SOAP AND CANDLE WORKS. There aro nineteen soap and candle works in this colony, or there were that number last year. In 1890 the value of raw material used was £93,386, while the value of all manufactures totalled the sum of £155,714. The following figures will show the state of this important industry in 1890, compared with what it was when the 1886 census was taken :—

1800. 1886. Number of works ... .. ID 18 steam power .. ... 14 17 llaiul power .... 5 1 Amount of horse power.. 259 420 Value of materials .. £96,386 £72,901 Value of manufactures .. 155,714 130,745 lianil 11,282 8.810 JSuilditiK* 15,620 20,070 Machinery 47,511 47,048 The ~oap and candle works are established in the following places:—Auckland, 6; Canterbury, 4 ; Nelson and Otago, 3 each ; Wellington, 2; Ilawke'a Bay, 1. The quantities and values of soap and candles manufactured in 1890 are tabulated as follows : — | ■3o> 8 o - E £ SIS o 3 ■-* "■ o °i *i C ff H ci -co co 10 0 2 "ef* "It rt H lO M TH 1 rH •raraiOTjnirein § ° -Ills ■WtllO r-~ -T icT CO CO -T rH " I 6 O gl O CI CO 3 CO © , ' CO H O c* i-~ * 4 in c-f V m > 7-i th CM O O g __ 5 >\ r'\ ti -xJ © <*> ci O GO W TJ +* o I- © i- o c g n i : 00 © ci v L- CO «* © 3 rH (M <? | ® 23 a CI og I o j 3 o © cl 4 lio I «S Cf7 CO r-7 r-T I~r Si-* A > rH ° - cI : \ Ifl I >» I .ts . o © O i— I I '7Z 4_J — c^Scocolr-H | T, >. co t- CO OJ | »-i i I I «53 cC ci" c SI 'i S3 I a C-l r-t (M ICOI 00 I <y 1 1_ 2:::::: j I£ . ® .5 _ * I :&:»» « 5 ■£ % - ■? -3 1 3g o 3 3 rt [3 3-2 ca£ & u © NEW-LAID EGGS BY MACHINERY. When some considerable time since it was mentioned in these columns that an inventor in America had discovered a process of manufacturing eggs without the intervention of poultry, it was regarded by many readers as simply a Yankee yarn or hoax. Further information to hand on the subject shows that the thing is no hoax, but a bona fide affair. Mr. James Storrey, of Kansas city, claims that the artificial production of eggs at a phenomenally cheap rate is now an accomplished fact, and he is proving his own belief in his contention by erecting a large factory to work the invention which he has patented for the production of artificial eggs. The raw material which he uses for the production of artificial eggs are lime water, bullock's blood, milk, tallow, peas, and a few other odds and ends, including some chemicals, the nature and composition of which are known only to the inventor. The machinery used by this egg manufacturer is said to be very ingenious. The yolk is [first run in a mould, and then placed in a second matrix containing the proper proportion of the albuminous substance which stands for the white, after which the whole is covered with a shell made of lime water and glue, which hardens after it is set. Mr. Storrey guarantees that his artificially-made eggs will keep " new laid" for a month, and that the total cost of this production is so low that they can bo retailed at per dozen. One would think from this (says a home paper) that the egg-producing fowl had got " notice to quitbut so many of these wonderful inventions, hatched in the brains of scheming Yankees, have proved abortive that it may bo as well to wait and see how Mr. Storrey's " new-laid" eggs are relished by the general public before coming to any decision 011 the subject. Agricola.