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Otago Witness, Issue 3512, 5 July 1921, Page 3

Experimental work is to be commenced on the Government’s area of 104 acres at Galloway Flat (Central Otago) to find out the best method of applying irrigated water to the land for farming purposes. Arrangements are well forward and cultural operations are about to be started. The scheme of operations is in the hands o f Mr R, B. Tennent, of the Department of Agriculture, who has been connected with the irrigation schemes in Australia. Mr Tennent, who has just returned to town from a conference of instructors at Palmeiston North, there suggested that an officer should be brought over from one of the irrigation districts in New South Wales or Victoria to supervise the work at Galloway, and the Minister has expressed his approval of this courso. It is also Mr Tenncnt’s intention to call together a representative committee of Central Otago farmers so iliat the greatest benefit may be obtained from the .experiments. Cabinet last week voted £1950 for tba erection of buildings at the Karitane-Harris Hospital lit Dunedin in connection with (ha Plunket Society movement (wires our Wellington correspondent). A small grant for the Christchurch Karitane Hospital will probably appear on the Estimates next session.

Mr Justice Reed heard an appeal at Gisborne by Arthur Owen against the Magistrate’s conviction on a charge of keeping a common gaming house with a sentence of two months’ imprisonment (states a Gisborne Press Association telegram). In his evidenco on the 27th, the chief police witness, Joseph Brown, contradicted himself so frequently under cross-examination by Mr M. Myers that the latter suggested to Mr Justice Reed that it was useless to go further. Mr No! an (Crown Prosecutor! agreed unless the police evidence was sufficient without Brown’s. His Honor said that Brown’s statement was so obviously contradictory that his evidence could not be accepted. The appeal was allowed and the conviction quashed.

The present winter season has brought to many families in Auckland hardship and distress such as they have not known for many years past (wires our special correspondent). The city’s social workers have had increasing numbers of visitors seeking help; among them are women who have had nothing to give their chldren to eat for a week, save bread and thin stew. There are old age pensioners, feeble with infirmity, who aro wearing brown paper in their boots instead of soles. Widows with families of five or six little ones, and nothing but a •mail pension to meet all thoir wants. Thes are all actual cases vouched for by Workers who are striving valiantly to carry an their good work against odds. These and other stories of distress were bcwne out by the relieving officer of the Hospital Board, who stated that the board was at

present aiding 200 families, all of whom were in dire need. A Press Association telegram from Christchurch states that there is no likelihood of a drop in the price of sugar for some months. This statement was made by Mr W. G. M‘Donaid, chairman of the Board of Trade, yesterday. Mr M‘Donald said the Board of Trade was now negotiating with the Colonial Sugar Company relative to a supply of sugar when the present extended contract expires Mr M‘Donald added that there is no intention at present to prohibit the importation of foreign sugar. If merchants are dissatisfied either with the control or the price of the controlled product, they are at perfect liberty to go elsewhere for their sugar. The matter of a relatively lower quotation for Java sugar was mentioned. Merchants may have received these quotations, said Mr M‘Donald, but they have not got the prices and the supply in the one spot. A distinct earthquake tremor was felt at 1.32 a.m. on the 29th. The shock lasted from five to ten seconds, and the direction appeared to be from N.E. to S.W. At the telephone exchange the quake was very noticeable, but was most pronounced at -St. K licta. The Superintendent of Police received ad vice on the 20tb from the constable at Roxburgh that the body of James Galvin, who has been missing since May 15, was found in the Molyneux River on Tuesday. Deceased was licensee of the Shingle Creek Hotel,

The work of finally “cleaning up” matters relative to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force is considerably hampered by the fact that returned soldiers and the next-of-kin of deceased soldiers fail to notify any change in their address to the Oflicer-in-Charge of the War Accounts arid Records. At present illuminated certificates recording service with the forces are being posted to ex-soldiers, and the percentage of those returned through the Dead Letter Office necessitates much increased work and correspondence. The same experience follows the issue of memorial scrolls which are being sent to the next-of-kin of deceased soldiers. Large numbers of these memorials are being returned through the Dead Letter Office. At an early date the memorial plaques will arrive in New Zealand, and as each one weighs approximately Boz, it will be a serious matter if persons entitled to receive them do not ensure their present address being on record.

At their meeting last week the CityFathers rose in arms to defend the fair name of Invercargill against the charges made by Mr William Bradley (generally known as “Cairo” Bradley), an evangelist, who recently stated that he had met as bad cesspools in Invercargill as anything he had struck in other parts of the world (wires our Invercargill correspondent). In referring to tlj.e matter, the Mayor (Air J. F. Lillicrap) said that it did seem rather late in the day to bring the matter up. but he had been approached by several prominent citizens who considered that an official denial should be made. The Mayor went on to read testimonies from the Inspector of Police and Mr A. M'Lean, city raissioner for 18 years, both of whom stated that Invercargill was one of the cleanest towns they knew. Several councillors took heated exception to Mr Bradley’s remarks, end a motion of denial was passed unanimously.

A rather unusual case came before Mr G. Cruickshank. S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court, Invercargill (states the Southland Times), when George Fanning proceeded against George Gordon, claiming £l5O damages alleged to be due to plaintiff through a fire lit by defendant spreading to a hedge owned by plaintiff and damaging it. The defence submitted that the claim for £l5O was outrageous, and a witness estimated that £lO would cover the cost of planting new trees and erecting temporary shelter. The magistrate said that besido the question of reparation, lie had to consider ibe temporary depreciation caused to the property. Judgment would be for plaintiff for £25, with costs £2 6s. While 2427 clergymen in Australia received, in the latest year revised by the Taxation Commissioner in his annual report, a gross income of only £767,688, the proprietors of soft goods retail stores, numbering 2288, shared an income of £9,627,986. The clergy men paid £10,384 in income tax; the soft goods proprietors contributed £280,756. Farmers, who numfored 42,867, made a gross income in this period of £31.254.336, and paid to the Commissioner £525,899 as income tax. Pastoralists, though numbering only 11,493, made almost as much as the 42,867 farmers, and were called upon to pay in this tax more than three times as much —£1,879.187. Mining businesses, represented by 518 organisations, realised a gross income of £7,415,005. and were assessed for income tax for £161,668. Amusement was felt by an American in Auckland at a statement that the United States would eventually be converted about the high quality of New Zealand frozen meat, just as the Old Country

was. When he was told by an Auckland Star reporter that New Zealand’s connection with the export trade in frozen meat dated from the early ’eighties, he re marked : “Why, in our country the industry had advanced so far that they were then beginning to talk about trusts.” It seems that practically no actually “fresh” meat is eaten in the States, or if it is it comes from the (.farmers. T!'■ butchering, or packing business as they call it i- America, uses the freezing process universally, and by this means the supply is dealt with on a grand scale, and the supplies are kept properly regulated. Some of the packers send their meat 1500 miles by rail in refrigerating cars, which are not the little boxes we use in New Zealand, but bigaffairs of 50 tons capacity-. The Star’s informant was not quite sure of the date his country began to use freezing in connection with the meat trade, but he believed it was about 1850. so it was not surprising h P was somewhat amused when he read about the education of the American public in a taste for frozen meat. An Auckland Press Association telegram states that just as a char-a-banc containing 40 passengers passed over a bridge at Henderson the Swanson road bridge collapsed into the creek. 14ft below. No one was injured. Another char-a-banc crossed immediately before, both being part of a funeral of a man who was killed at a sawmill. In connection with the proposal to erect a new Boys’ High School on the Collegiate reserve at Gladstone (states the Southland Times), it is understood that matters have now been brought to a head, enabling the High Schools Board to proceed with the work a? soon as the plans and specifications have been approved of by the Education Department. Ensign and Mrs Lamberton, who are in charge of the Salvation Army’s work in South Dunedin, are finding a good many cases of genuine need for help, the breadwinner being out of work, and the children during the cold weather requiring more warm clothing and boots. Quite a number have been assisted, but much more could bo done in assisting the needy if supplied with the necessary clothing, etc. The following are the vital statistics for Dunedin district for June, the corresponding figures for June, 1920, being given in brackets: —Births, 191 (176); deaths, 77 (79); marriages 71 (65). Comparative figures for six months of this year and 1920 are as follows: —Births, 817 (901); deaths, 402 (467); marriages, 430 (447).