HERE AND THERE.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 January 1920, Page 3

HERE AND THERE.

(By "D.J.H.")

What possibilities there are in this country! I met a man the other day, not a hundred miles from Hawera, who holds only 31 acres of land, but who has sold three tons of gooseberries. Bad season though it is, he expects to have over a ton of honey for sale also. No help, and no wife to help him. Why talk about (axing bachelors after this? Another energetic holder of five acres near Now Plymouth, with a wife and one chick to help him, is taking just now £9O per month for eggs. When lean years come and people are compelled to put their shoulders to the, wheel, energy will beget increased production and thrift creep into the homes of the people of this Dominion. Verily, it is needed. The elections are over, and. the New Zealand political barometer reads the same "as in other parts of the world. Our British Empire is going to hark back to the days of the Elizabethan era, and the State take a bigger grip of the reins. The day of the classes is closing, and the dawn of the coming day of the masses i 3 at hand. What a demoralising game is being played to the Maori! Black though they are, no aboriginal tribe on God's Earth stands on as high a human pedestal. Laws have been passed allowing this grand race to practically surreptitiously sell their lands. The price fixed by value is nominally on a par with rating values, which is roughly forty per cent. below the market value. The cash is paid to the Maori, and he is having a glorious time for the present. My Pakeha friends, how would you like tins meted out to you? 'Tis old English fuedal law with a vengeance. Bring m an Act taking big landholders'-, holdings on the same lines, and what a squeal there would be! The Maori boys and girls going to our schools to-day will have some lamentations at the political game played with their fathers. It will cause some hatred in their old age, and truly 'tis a shame and a pity. I wonder is the average dairyman aware of the high prices skins and hides are bringing just now? If he were he would steer towards where competition is A dairy farmer told me the other day his ordinary calf skins, with a touch of Jersey in the calves, netted him over fifteen shillings each. Farmers, don't forget the white keeping turnip and the Budda Kale. You will want them this coming fall and winter. I notice soft turnips are iifiefl a lot now in the Waikato. Sown late in February the keeping kinds help to tide well into winter. Saving grars seed was a staple business in Taranaki at one time, and every little plot was harvested. Go where you will now and you'll see the difference. Around most country homesteads it ripens and sheds year after year, on the roads, too. What a waste! It is so dear to buy and one pound of locally grown seed germinates better than &ttbi« the ijuaatittf of the imported mi.