NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 4041, 25 August 1931, Page 28

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The gradual decline of the horse for useful purposes was illustrated at the Matamata County Council meeting recently, when it was decided to dispose of the remaining three draught horses owned by the council. The engineer (Mr M. E. Fitzgerald) remarked that in recent years there had been much less work for horses to do. and hired animals could be acquired for the little work sometimes necessary. All transport of materials in the country is done by motor vehicles; “ It is my custom to give the jury a brief respite every now and again,” said Mr Justice Blair in the Supreme Court at Wanganui. “ I realise that jurymen are not so accustomed to sitting for long periods as I am. The court will adjourn for seven minutes, after which time I shall expect you to be back here, and when I say seven minutes that does not mean seven minutes and another minute,” added his Honor. A splendid gift of 14001 b of butter has been made to distressed Auckland families, through the Farmers’ Union, by the Hokianga Co-operative Dairy Company. The 25 boxes of butter are being brought to Onehunga free of charge by A. G. Frankham, Ltd., which has undertaken to provide cartage to Auckland. The dairy company's generosity represents a gift in cash of roughly 7 £6O from the company’s supplier-shareholders. “It ig a remarkable thing that the majority of the children of the early missionaries to Hawaii are now practically all millionaires,” said Mr Frank Purnell at the luncheon of the Wanganui Rotary Club (states the Chronicle). It was also a fact that the biggest percentage of America's leading public men were the children of preachers. Doctors and lawyers were not in it for raising gons who appeared in “ Who's Who,” he added, amidst laughter. “ A second Taupo,” is Ranger Digby’s description of the future of Lake Coleridge, according to the president of the council of the North Canterbury 7 Acclimatisation Society 7 (Mr C. H. Lawrence). At the meeting of the council the other night Mr Lawrence said that Ranger Digby had secured beautiful fish at Coleridge—up to 131 b for rainbows and 101 b for brown trout. It wag reported that 88,000 eyed rainbow trout ova had been secured at Lake Coleridge. “ Why go to the South Sea Islands to cultivate tropical fruits? ” asks a Whangarei grower, who is a successful commercial orchardist. Recently (says the Northern Advocate) he reared a pineapple plant which yielded a palatable head, but died of chilblains and frostbite owing to exposure this winter. Pineapples flourish in his garden outside, but the fruit does not mature to anything worth while. The orchardist is now trying another exotic variety 7, and recently planted a paw-paw in his hothouse.