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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19069, 15 January 1924, Page 6

Three of the 10 bags constituting the Dunedin portion of the Australian mail which arrived at Auckland yesterday by the Niagara from Sydney are due here to-morrow. The other seven, together with 23 parcel receptacles, are due the following day, when three parcel receptacles from the United Kingdom, ex the same vessel, are also due here. The following is the return of infectious diseases in the Dunedin and Fever Hospitals for'the week ended at noon yesterday :—Diphtheria-remaining two; pulmonary tuberculosis—died one, remaining six; pneumonia—admitted one, remaining two; cerebro-spinal meningitis—remaining one ; erysipelas—discharged one ; tentanus — remaining, one; aphthahnia neohatorium—remaining one ; —total remaining, 14. The work of subdividing the Mount Pisa run in Central Otago has now been completed, and the land will be opened for selection next month. The run, which comprises 128,522 acres,’ has been cut up into 10 areas, ranging from 7914 acres to 21,660 acres. The half-yearly rentals range from £32 to £l5O. The general quality of the run is described as poor, but in the case of the other it is stated to be either fair or very fair. Possession will be given on April 1, and the leases will have a currency of 35 years from March 1, 1925. Preference at the ballot will be given to approved discharged soldier applicants, to landless applicants, who have one or more children dependent upon them, to landless applicants who, within two years immediately preceding the ballot, have applied for land at least twice unsuccessfully, and to persons engaged on military service beyond New Zealand in connection with the late war, if such persons were bona fide residents of New Zealand prior to the war. A representative of the Deportment of Agriculture, speaking to a Daily Times reporter yesterday, stated that he had made a tour of the wheat districts in the northern parts of the island. Almost all the wheat around Ashburton and further north had been out, and the yield, be said, would go rathor lower than was expected on account of the grain becoming scorched, which forced the ripening and gave It no opportunity of filling out. Methven growers had also been forced to reap, as the winds had been battering the crops about. On the lighter land the yield was not expected to be more than 25 bushels or so to the acre, but there were some rather good crops in the Ellesmere district,, whore practically all the winter sown crop was cut. The spring-sown crop was poor. Oat crops were short and light. They had to be cut in a hurry on account of sudden ripening, and the men had been working on them day and night. Barley was light and brittle, and a • great deal bad been cut. The Broad Bay Methodist Church celebrated its diamond jubilee on Sunday, when there were large congregations at both morning and evening services. The Rev. H. E. Bellhouse, chairman of the district, who preached at the morning service, took as his text, Joel 11, 25: “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.” Afterwards Mr Bellhouse expressed the opinion that they should have mad* more of the diamond jubilee as it was a notable thing that in a young country like New Zealand an outlying church should reach the 60 years’ stage in prosperity. Dr Waddell conducted the evening sendee. Word has been received by the Teviot Power Board (writes our Roxburgh correspondent) that the balance of the machinery (turbines and switch gear) has arrived in Dunedin. The alternators arrived some time ago. and no time will be lost now in getting the lot on to the power site. The work of erection will commence in about 10 days, and a few weeks later should see the first turn out of the wheels.

Brigadier-general J. O. Travers, who arrived at Wellington on Sunday from England on a fishing excursion, commenting on the immigrants aboard the steamer Rotorua,'declared that they were young men of a splendid type. It surprised him to find such large numbers of England’s most promising youths coming out to the colonies, but it was a good thing and all to the advantage of Now Zealand. During the war Brigadier-general Travers was in charge of the Sixty-sixth Division in France. He also served in other theatres of the war, and later he was appointed to the difficult post of commanding the troops in the South of Ireland, where, as he summed it up, there was excitement enough to satisfy any normal person. An Auckland resident has received a most baffling communication from England, apparently in error (says the Star). It was addressed to him care of (he Thirty Thousand Club, New Zealand, and this fact alone suggested to the receiver that there had been some mistake. Imagine his surprise, however, on finding that the letter inside contained the following:—“Your wire reached us this morning, and we are sorry to say that the elephant had alorady been sold to a North England firm. We may say that our business is entirely in toys, and should you be interested in Now Zealand and require supplies at any time perhaps yon would keep our name before you.” The addressee must, have felt like replying, “Yes! We have no bananas,’’ for these ambiguous words would have conveyed as much to the writer of the letter as the missive did to the receiver. A possible explanation is that the letter was intended for the Napier Thirty Thousand Club, which annually holds a mardi gras and had probably been seeking a novelty in the way of toys. The danger of bathing from the wharves, already prohibited by regulation of the Harbour Board, should be forcibly brought home by the fact that on a recent afternoon a shark, over sft in length, was hooked off the Pipitea wharf {says a Wellington paper). It was not brought up further than the surface, however, when it turned over, snapped the line, and disappeared.

“One thing which strikes me as unusual,” was the way Professor W. B. Thomson, scientist, of Toronto Univevrsity, spoke to a New Zealand Times reporter of the areas of natural bush near the city. To find whole areas of virgin bush kept in their native condition was a surprise to our scientific visitor, and a trip to the Botanical Gardens revealed to him what he had never seen before, some primitive country within short distance of the heart of a city. “I think that your citizens should see that this is preserved for the benefit of future generations,” he remarked. “Rarely do you find that the inhabitants of a country appreciate their natural plants. But don’t make that corner of your Botanical Gardens civilised—don’t put in border plants and introduce plants from other parts of the world. I can assure you that it is infinitely more beautiful as it is.” Whey appears to contain certain acijjs of powerful corrosive qualities. .At a meeting of tho-Manawatu County Council recently it was stated that it destroyed iron pipes in an amazingly short time, and even rapidly disintegrated concrete. One member stated that he possessed a concrete pigstye, which now bore the appearance of being loosely metalled, due to the cement having been destroyed by the action of acids in whey. “I was ‘had’ beautifully by a man describing himself as the French Consul about going ashore at Tahiti,” writes a Christchurch lady to her son from San Francisco. “He made me pay him £2, or else, he said, we could not go ashore at this place, where we would ;be anchored for 24 hours. I told at the time that I thought it was wrong, but the Frenchman said it was the now rule and that we took the risk of being arrested if we put foot on French soil without paying this sum. So when we did go on shore I asked one of the officials, and he laughed and said we could go anywhere we liked on the island without paying a single franc.” An attempt to “bear” the butter market is being made in London at the present time, according to Mr Goodfellow (managing director of the New Zealand Co-opera-tive Dairy Company). Referring to the latest London cable from the company’s manager, Mr Goodfellow stated (reports the Hamilton correspondent of the Auckland Star) that Anchor butter was quoted at 216 s and Danish at 218 s, f.o.b. The market was reported to be very quiet, but renewed activity was anticipated for next week. Meantime buyers of New Zealand butter purchased f.o.b. and being delivered ex Remuera were engineering a “bear” movement, and were offering first grade butter down as low as 208 s, with the object in forcing sales. “This is the most pernicious element in our market,” states the cable. Mr Goodfellow said that, so long as the dairy companies were prepared to sell f.o.b. it would be possible for dealers in Tooley Street to utilise such sales to meet their own ends. Only by strictly consistent consignments could the producer receive the full market price for his produce. Other countries recognised this faijJ. Referring to cheese prices, Mr Goodfellow stated that Anchor cheese, white and coloured, was quoted at 104 s. The market was quiet, and it was noteworthy that the same pernicious element was reported to exist in connection with New Zealand cheese sales. Owing to the firmness of the London market the board of directors met in Hamilton last week, and decided to increase the advance price of butter by Id per lb, and to reduce the advance price for cheese by 2d. If the market remains satis factory further advances in butter will be made at a later date. The cheese position is somewhat obscure and directors deemed it advisable to make a reduction. The residents of Riverton received a mild surprise a few days ago on seeing a raptor car containing several small children go hurtling backwards along the main street with its perspiring owner dashing after it at a pace which would have made Willie Lincoln or Look Out green with envy. After a hard chase the car was overtaken and brought to a standstill about six inches from a stalwart lamp post, and the owner, while regaining his breath, informed all within earshot in lurid terms that next time he cranked the recalcitrant vehicle he would take good care to see it was not in reverse. A few evenings ago, when walking in one of the streets of Wanganui, ja visiting cleric noticed a peculiar glare in the front window of a house he was passing. Closer investigation convinced him that something was wrong, and he promptly climbed the fence and ran to the window. What he saw caused him to act with a celerity which is not usually attributed to members of the cloth. The window curtains were blazing merrily. Just inside the window a child of about five years was in bed, and the room was rapidly filling with smoke. Fortunately the sash was not latched, and the stranger did not hesitate to throw open the window, enter the room, and commence a battle with the flames. When the parents rushed in to discover the cause of the noise their gratitude to the unknown minister was profound. And it was all, apparently, because they had with mistaken kindness left a lighted candle at their little one’s bedside. The Calliope Coal Mining Company, recently formed in Reefton, has in hand the construction of an aerial transmission line ,by which the coal will be conveyed from the mine at Murray Creek to the railway trucks at Reefton, a distance of about three miles. Hitherto tSe coal, which.is said to be of a high quality for household purposes, has been carted over a particularly steep and narrow road at a cost of 15s per ton. The excessive cost of landing the.coal in the railway trucks at Reefton has retarded the development of the mine; the new aerial transport will make it possible to retail the coal profitably. The aerial transmission line will permit of the delivery of 50 tons per shift of eight hours. The line will be constructed over precipitous country admirably adapted for a gravitation scheme, and the weight of the full buckets, with the fall available, will be> sufficient to pull up the empty buckets. The survey of the line has been completed, and the construction of the necessary trestles is at present in hand. The work is being carried out under the supervision of the company’s manager, Mr Walter Wilby. An extraordinary occurrence caused some public commotion on the South Melbourne side of the river, near the swinging basin on December 27 (says the Age). A heavy draught horse, in free enjoyment of the Boxing Day holiday, was wandering around in the vicinity of the wharfs, when his roaming fancy led him on to the footpath on the west side of Johnson street. The footpath proved unequal to the strain of sustaining about 16cwt of horse flesh, and to the surprise of persons in the vicinity the animal suddenly sank out of sight, only his back showing above the footpath. Investigations revealed that by some process of deterioration, probably by the wash of drainage water, a cavity about five feet deep and six feet wide had been caused, and this cavity was covered by only a thin crust of earth. When the horse imposed his weight on the slab of earth covering this pitfall, his holiday ramble came abruptly to an end. The next question was how was ho to get out of the hole he had got into. This question he was quite unable to solve. -So. with such patience as he could command on finding his holiday thus spoiled, he had to stand in the ditch he had discovered until some workmen name and dug him out.

The Port Chalmers Old Identities’ Association’s annual picnic will be held at Evanadale on Saturday. A. E. J. Blakeley, dentist. Bank of Ana tralaaia, corner of Bund and Rattray streets (next Telegraph Office). Telephone 1859. Advt Choice Jewellery; compare our values; large selection diamond rings, watches, bracelets, silverware, etc. —Peter Dick, jewellers. 490 Moray place.—Advt. You cannot get better value in engagement rings than at Williamson’s, the diamond setters, next door to The Bristol.— Advt.