THE NORTH ISLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 21

THE NORTH ISLAND.

(I’bom Our Own Correspond*-*-.) The North Island has surely been specially favoured in regard to weather. The past week has been simply delightful, and farmers are in good heart for the coming winter. The autumn season has exceeded all expectations, and the feed outlook could not be bettered, though in that respect the west coast is in a much more favoured position than the east. There is abundance of good grass and clover on the west coast, and farmers on the east are sending their stock over for selling purposes. The outlook is certainly bright, and farmers have no anxiety as to the approaching winter. Stock is in great fettle, and if the present conditions do not alter too quickly, or develop too severely, the wool output next season should be considerably enhanced. KING COUNTRY LANDS. The possibilities of King Country lauds have frequently been emphasised, and there is no doubt that, when properly handled, excellent results are achieved. An instance is given at Te Kuiti. Within six miles of the township there are three farmers, whose combined flocks realised over 100 per cent, of fat lambß from 2730 ewes, no fewer than 2673 fat lambs being sold to a buyer last week. THE CREAM SONG. “It is said that you cannot succeed unless you can laugh at yourself. That is the spirit in which the Ngatiporou have taken up dairying," remarked Mr Ngata to the Prime Minister and other pakeha visitors to the hui ball held at Tikitiki last week. “We are inexperi-

enced, hut we are learning. One of oar habits is to make songs, and we have made one about this new thing in our lives. It is called ‘ The Cream Song.’ The melody was an old one, but the Maori words were framed in the tale of dairying, and embellished with truly Maori gestures. An effective passage dealt with the actual milking process, and as the hands of the handsome 'milkmaids’ moved in rhythmic gesticulations, through the swinging chorus came the hissing of the fluid as it foamed in the pails/’ RONGOTEA AGRICULTURAL CLUB. The result of the soft turnip competition held under the auspices of the above agricultural club was as follows:—T. Scott (Glen Oroua), 67£ points, 1; W. Dawbin (Kopaue), 62£ points, 2; A. Burgess (Rongotea), 62 points, 3; J. Peacock (Taikorea), 58 points, 4. THE NG AT I POROUS AND DAIRYING. According to a Gisborne writer the Ngatiporou tribe has traditions as fine as any of the Native tribes of New Zealand, but there is one shady period in its history within the memory of the older generation. This period was touched on by the Hon. A. T. Ngata when he was explaining to European visitors to the hui ball at Tikitiki last week the adoption of the name Ngati for the product of the Waiapu dairy factory. Fifty or 60 years ago, he remarked with a smile, the Ngatiporou tribe had horses, descendants probably of those landed by Captain Cook; they were weedy animals, owing probably to inbreeding, and became known as by association with the tribe. The Natives used to ride these horses down to Poverty Bay for the grass-seed-ing, and while there were in the habit of drinking, fighting, and indulging in general rascality. In those days, therefore, the name Ngati got into bad odour, but it was so closely linked with their tribe that since it had rehabilitated in the meantime they had selected it as the name under which they would sell their dairy products. DEER CONTROL.

The quesion of deer control is agitating the minds of some of the acclimatisation societies in the north. At Te Awamutu the other evening one speaker said at a meeting that he had been deer stalking regularly for nearly 40 years, and his experience showed that deer did not destroy the forests. Wild cattle and pigs did nearly all the damage. If the Government declared an open season for deer the district where they were overstocked would soon be cleared out. Some of the Parliamentarians who had spoken on the subject were talking ridiculous nonsense. A former official of the Otago district (Mr Harold King) expressed a contrary view, .saying that deer were the most destructive of the wild animals of Otago and Southland. The society had spent £IOOO in one year in culling. Over 140 deer were destroyed in one day. The Otago Acclimatisation Society wished it had never seen a deer. ConditionsTnight be different in the North Island. It was Otago that was urging the Minister to declare an season. Mr Badlow said it was unfair to condemn deer all over the Dominion for damage done in Otago. He had been all through the deer districts of Auckland Province, and denied that damage was done to the forests. He would admit that at times deer came out on to plantations, but usually the damage there was negligible, and farmers usually were good enough sportsmen to put up with that inconvenience. As a Wairarapa sportsman, Mr W. Woolston gave his experiences. There the deer were too numerous, and were deteriorating in quality. Thinning out was desirable. The Chairman said the Minister had not yet replied to the society’s representations. The society and Mr Withers had objected to a decision based on the views • of Government officials without the views of acclimatisation societies being heard and considered. MAORI RESEARCH. Dr Peter Buck, D. 5.0.. has been discussing the question of Maori arts and crafts at Gisborne, and he made 'gather an in-, teresting reference to the work of the Maori Board of Ethnological Research. Dr Buck explained the method it had of obtaining finance, this being derived from the operations of Maori land boards, trust funds, and by gifts. The board had made possible by financial assistance the publishing of several bulletins by Mr Elsdon Best on such subjects as Maori canoes, Maori fortifications, Maori agriculture, and games and pastimes. There was much other information of a similar character that could not be made available without assistance. Financial assistance also was given to the Polynesian Society, which iR the second oldest ethnological society in the British-speaking world. Tts work had been hampered through lack of funds. Since the board had assisted it. it had been able to improve the standard of its quarterly journal. By the inclusion of illustrations and diagrams, the usefulness of the publication made it a necessity to the scientific world. The hoard in the near future would be able to consider the question of giving assistance to research work in the field. It was helping Mr H. D. Skinner, lecturer in anthropology at the Otago University, to exploit the field of rock paintings in Otago and South Canterbury, with a view of these being put on record by description and illustration. Dr Buck added that the hoard had assisted him in his own investigations into the evolution of Maori clothing. In the near future it would consider the question of helping research in the Cook Islands group. The Pan-Pacific Congress has decided that research work in Polynesia should be left to the United States and New Zealand, and as the Cook Islands now are part of the New Zealand administration the board considered it should direct its attention there. Dr Buck had just attended the Science Congress in Dunedin. He said the proceedings were enjoyable. Mr Kenyon, who had done a great deal of research concerning stone implements used by the Australian natives, was able to give much valuable advice on the classification of stone implements found on beaches in Otago. From his experience in flaking.

etc., Mr Kenyon was able to show that many of these pieces of flints and quartz were used for a definite purpose in the days of long ago. EXPORT OF PRODUCE. The following statistics show the quantities of the principal items of exports from the Dominion during the past two years:—

bales, but owing to the extremely high prices ruling in the earlier months of last year the value of the staple showed a gain of £2,471,374. There was an increase of about 5 per cent, in the quantity of frozen meat shipped, but the increased value was £1,668,869, or about 18 per cent. Butter shipments declined about 2 per cent, in quantity, and the aggregate value was less by £1,401,536. Cheese declined 14 per cent, in quantity, and the aggregate value was less by £1,222,489. Tallow shipments exhibited an increase of about 4 per cent., and the increase in value was under £90,000. The quantity of hemp shipped increased by 27 per cent., and the value increase was £128,142. DAIRYING IN FEILDING. Suppliers to the Makino factory received Is 4d for butter-fat supplied during December. This is Id per lb more than for the same month last year. The output of butter from the factory last month was a little over 191 tons. This shows a decrease of 11.3 per cent, on January, 1925. The directors state that the Dominion decrease for the same month is 17.2 per cent., so that the supply to the Cheltenham Dairy Company’s factory has been well up to the average. The average grade of the butter produced at the Cheltenham factory last month was 93.88. THE BACON INDUSTRY. The latest report of the executive of the Co-operative Marketing Association shows that two parcels of bacon shipped on a c.i.f. basis have sold at a satisfactory figure. The influence of this organisation on the market has undoubtedly been the cause of the local prices advancing to the present satisfactory rate. The price of baconers has invariably fallen in past seasons to a fairly low rate after the Christmas trade was over, but this season it has risen instead of falling, notwithstanding the fact that there are 14,000 more pigs in the Dominion, according to Government statistics. The executive is now holding pigs for the winter market, and guarantees that the price will be in excess of the average price current, which means the weekly average price paid by bacon companies in the Waikato, Manawatu, and Wairarapa districts. WEIGHT OF LAMBS. Mr W. Perry, the well-known Wairarapa breeder, in' a lecture at Dannevirke the other day, covered a considerable amount of ground that was of special interest to pastoralists. In reply to the Hon. O. Hawken, Minister of Agriculture, as to whether Mr Perry considered that the sending of heavy weight lambs to London had a detrimental effect on iamb prices generally, the lecturer said that two years ago, as a result of a dry season, the weights were quite reasonable, and the proportion of heavy lambs to light lambs quite right. Last year, a good season, the North Island lambs had a good weight and the South Island lambs were much heavier. There was some demand in London for the heavy lamb, but the great majority preferred small joints. It was not the price per pound that the ordinary purchaser minded; he wanted small joints. Much of the heavy lamb that should have been sold on the London markets before Christmas was still unsold. The new Zealand farmer must realise that the London public wanted the 301 b to 361 b lamb with a smaller proportion of lambs up to 401 b. The best were those from 331 b to 361 b. There was nothing to equal “milk lambs ’ of that weight. Doaling with the question of the proportion of “dead weight” to “live weight” in fat iambs. Mr Perry said that fat lambs exhibited at the recent Royal Show in Christchurch when killed showed the following results: —North Island lambs, three fair-sized lames and three lighter, averaged 53.5 per cent, of meat to their live weight. Thirty-three South Island lambs gave an average return of 52,43 per cent, of meat. There was a general impression that South Island lambs killed better than North Island iambs, but the figures quoted showed that the North Island lambs gave the higher proportion of meat. The first prize pen, South Island (on the hoof), a SufTolk-Southdown cross, gave the excellent return of 48.38 per cent, of meat. English Leicester-Southdown crosg killed out much lighter per cent, of meat than the Romney and Lincoln-Southdown crosses. The Leicester cross had not. the solid flesh and undercut that the Romney and Lincoln crosses possessed. As an illustration of live weights and dead weights, Mr Perry said that a pen of three lambs weighing on the hoof 661 b, 701 b, and 701 b, killed out at 371 b 371 b, and 381 b respectively MARTON SHOW. The Rangitikei A. and P. Association’s annual show was held at Marton on Wednesday, and wa g largely attended. The display of cattle was fair, but there was a particularly fine entry of sheep, most of the flockmasterß of the district being represented. The Hon. A. D. M‘Leod, Minister for Lands, opened the show', and in the course of a brief speech said it was a pleasure whether as Minister of lands or not to visit the country districts and meet the people on the land and off the land. They were the backbone of the country. In reference to his Department, he said that though much had been done, more requires to be done before they settle troubles in connection with the land. In humorous vein he assured them their troubles were not £ront here. Coming from the Wairarapa it was a great pleasure to see the green fields here after the parched lands of the East Coast. But the farmers of Wairarapa were not hopelessly gone. They had somewhere to send their sheep, whioh he humorously suggested that farmers here could get at their own price. Congratulating Marton on its show, he said that in a distriot like this with team work they will have a great show in the future. He congratulated them, too. that in a radius ox-

tending as far a 8 Palmerston North, thof had land not to be beaten in the world, and with farmers endeavouring to get their best of it they would have nothing to fiar. Advocating economy he said that many were inclined to t>uy what they did not want, and urged they should cut their cloth according to their measure. He concluded by remarking that he had » ily to look at the people and the stork io see that the country was progressing.

Wool (bales) .. . 1925. 596,895 1924. 593,027 Meat (cwta»* .. .. 8,336,015 3,175,641 Tallo;v (tons) .. .. 25,020 23,988 Butter (cwt8) .. .. 1,245,324 1,260,455 Cheese (cwts) .. .. 1,376,754 1,594,486 Kauri gum (tons) 5,370 5,261 Hemp (tons) .. 16,408 12,662 Wool shows the small increase of 3868