LOCAL AND GENERAL

Patea Mail, Volume XLVI, 3 September 1923, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

An advertiser requires to purchase some household furniture. The Waihora left Wellington on Friday; with another shipment of cattle for Melbourne. At the end of July there were 1,105,000 freight carcases of meat in store in the freezing works of Now Zealand. The County Council, in this issue invite tenders for scraping and painting the steelwork of the Patca Bridge, and also for painting the County offices and house. In answer to two enquiries by local bodies as to its experience of bitumen roads, the Cambridge Borough Council answered that it was proud of its bitumen strccts > which had been laid down more than seven years ago, and during the whole time the cost of maintenance had not exceeded £lO. “Spare the nod and spoil the smile”; “It's an ill-wind that doesn’t help your figure”; “A ring on the hand is worth two in the window”; “A hat may get a look from a king”; “The more waist —the less heed”; “You can lead any man to the altar if you give him no chance to think”; ‘‘Procrastination is the chief use of time.”

The London ’bus-driver has always been known for his ready humour, but the man on the rear platform has taken that honour now. The staff instruction department of a certain company rubs in so much the desirability of politeness to passengers that perhaps this attitude is responsible for the remark of a conductor as ho stood on the top deck at a stopping place and thus addressed the crowd of would-be passengers: “Will the ladies' and gentlemen who arc unable to obtain accommodation in the interior of the vehicle kindly ascend to the superstructure! Eh? What? 1 '

Mr J. F. D. Winchester has an interesting replace advertisement in this issue. Wc understand that some 20 or more Whcnuakura farmers are paying a visit to the Moumahald State Farm tomorrow. Mr Hilton E. A. Hurrcll has an advertisement in another column with regard to motor and push cycles and accessories. At Hew Plymouth's Haymarkct yards last week-end, wcancr pigs made from 14/- to 16/-, slips IS/- to 20/-, stores from 24/-i to 37/G. There was a full yarding. The interest taken ibj' the district in the Mas tort on A. and P. Association is amply indicated by the number of nominations of candidates for the committee—4B stood for 30 seats. A bulldog pup, bred bjr Mr P. Bourkc, was successful in annexing two llrst prizes and also a second- prize at the Wellington Kennel Club's recent show. The dog, which was sold not long ago, was entered merely "on spec.''

Omitted from our report of the recent Druids’ dance were the following, who kindly played extras: Mrs Masters, Misses Adams, Horner, Carey, Gilligan, and Messrs K. MacDonald and K. Maitland.

An exhibition of billiards by Mr W. Abotomey, the Now South Wales, professional billiard champion, will be given to-imorrow (Tuesday), when he wil play Mr C. Christensen, of Patca. Playing up to form, Mr Abotomey should give a great exhibition, and one well worth seeing.

Here is a good Kipling story from the "Pall Mall Gazette": —The talk at the dinner table was of the pronunciation of English words. A lady, turnujg to Kipling, said: "Mr Kipling, did you over realise that sugar is the only word in which the ‘s-u' is pronounced as if it were ‘s-h-u’?" "Sure," answered Kipling.

The recent hot weather in Britain has recalled a wicked story of a certain Loyal visit to Edinburgh. One hot day in 1860 Queen Victoria was reviewing the Volunteers in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat, and, as the massed warriors marched swiftly past, she ingeniously remarked to Lord Palmerston, “Oh, what a stuffy smell!’’ “Esprit dc corps, madam,’’ responded Pam.

■Some of the advocates of a State Bank for New Zealand have held the view that the State could issue unlimited paper money which would always maintain its face value. An illustration of the fallacy of this idea was afforded recently, when a Dunedin business man received from Germany a small parcel weighing about 21b. The value of the postage stamps affixed, taking the mark at its normal value, is £1650. That was about six weeks ago. The position of the mark has grown much worse since then, the latest quotation being 21,000,000 to the f.

Needless to say, Taranaki's exhibition against Hawke’s Bay on Saturdayled to many sarcastic remarks by the spectators on the terraces. All of them were pointed, and most of them were humorous, but one of the gems must surely have been the following, uttered in a most pathetic and appealing tone: “Oh! Let them score, Hawke’s Bay!” A very small boy, not more than ten years of age, evdiently thought his father had brought him to the wrong place, and after watching the game for some time he turned to his parent ami enquired innocently: “Is this a Taranaki rep. team, Dad?” A'farmer in the Oamaru district who secured a yield of 50 tons per aero from a paddock of mangolds last year had only 11 tons an acre this year. The small yield was duo to the wot weather. There u'as no dearth of evidence to show the value of testing and culling cows at a meeting held in Carterton. One man stated that the first year of testing showed his herd only produced 1441 bof butterfat per head. In the second year they rose to 1731 b, then to 2081 b, while last season they jumped to 3191 b. Another dairy farmer, testing. and culling for two. seasons, said his average rose from 1801 b to 2461 b in that time, and he expected to cross the 3001 b mark during the approaching season, . i ,

Says the Stratford correspondent of the “Taranaki Herald”:—Dairy factory directors who have not adopted a settled policy in the matter of disposing of produce arc once more tortured with doubts whether to sell or consign the first three months’ cheese output. Offers by buyers have risen from BJd to in the last three weeks. It may be said that these arc very good prices, and that it is gambling to turn them down, but the experience of the last few years has upset all former standards of value. Before the war 6d was a good price, perhaps a better price in relation to farming expenses, than the much higher rates now current. There are farmers whose chance of continuing on their holdings depends upon receiving the very utmost obtainable for their milk, and dairy factory directors cannot ignore these weaker brethren. An extra td per lb of cheese, obtained by consignment, may just save the situation for many. Altogether, a director’s lot is not a happy one.