TESTING OF DAIRY HERDS

Taranaki Daily News, 19 June 1931, Page 10

TESTING OF DAIRY HERDS

SOUTH ISLAND ASSOCIATION. ANNUAL MEETING YESTERDAY. Moving the adoption of the report at the annual meeting of the South Taranaki Herd Testing Association yesterday, the chairman, Mr. S. C. Tonks, commented that at the conclusion of the first year’s working as an independent body the association’s position was very healthy. . He took the opportunity of thanking" the dairy companies which had come to the association’s aid. They were going to make a 20 per cent, cut in fees this year, provided of course that a sufficient number of cows were tested. One of the big expenses was canvassing, which might be greatly reduced by members helping in the work. He had the idea of setting up local committees to attend to group matters, but this could not be done yet. These committees would elect their representatives to the executive. Taranaki showed up badly compared with the rest of New Zealand, as only 15 per cent.,of the Taranaki cows were tested compared with 23 per cent, in Marlborough, for example. He did not know why testing had not gone ahead more in’ Tarana°ki and he was sure progress would be made because there were many “robbers” in the herds. In the Waikato an unmarked calf could hot be sold. He congratulated Messrs. Harrison and Hurley on having the "two best cows. The question of the length of test of cows which came in late and were milked until bhe end of May was raised by several speakers. It was pointed out that these cows did not get the benefit of the last half of May so that the Awatuna-Riverlea group’s average might have been not 302 but 312 or 3151 b. It was stated that in the herds near the mountain cows were never dried off until the end of May.

The secretary, Mr. E. M. Bardsley, explained that this could be overcome by taking another test at the end of May or by working out mathematically additional production. The former method was preferable. A speaker pointed out that the tattoo mark would not be shown on calves with black ears.

Mr. Tonks replied that experiments were in progress to evolve some satisfactory form of marking. Mr. W. F. Lyndon said the cost of calf-inarking was a deterrent, but Mr. Bardsley stated that the value of the calves would be greatly increased by marking. Actually the marking account had shown a loss. The black ear business had caused the federation a great d-'f.l of thought, and the difficulty would have to be surmounted. Mr. D. S. Richardson suggested that half-yearly meetings should be held. Mr. A. K. Fyson was re-elected auditor.

Votes of thanks were accorded Mr. Tonks and the testing staff. At a subsequent executive meeting Mr. Tonks re-elected chairman and Mr. Bardsley secretary and supervisor. PRIMARY SCHOOLS’ RUGBY TEAM. SOUTHERN PLAYERS SELECTED. The following is the Hawera district’s primary scliools’ Rugby team selected to play at Eltham on Saturday at 10 a.m. against Stratford and Opunake districts for the purposes of the selection of the South Taranaki primary school representatives: — Joyce (Convent); Aim (Turuturu), Rowson (Hawera), Meharry (Turuturu); Beechey .(Tawhiti), Petersen (Hawera); Collins (Okaiawa); Kelsen (Tawhiti), Barker, Budd (Hawera), Toro (Okaiawa), Nicholson (Normanby), Chadwick (Turuturu), Bamford (Hawera),. Tippett (Normanby); Grey (Okaiawa). Emergency (additional), Hurley (Tawhiti). MANAIA SCHOOL COMMITTEE. DONATION OF CUPS. The monthly meeting of the Manaia School Committee wa<s held on Wednesday, there being present z the Rev. R. Miller (chairman) and Messrs. T. A. Bridge, G. H. Edwards, O. T. Parry, L. J. Stoddart and J. Jeromson. The chairman stated that the grpunds were in very good, order, a considerable amount of useful work liaving been done by unemployed labour. The headmaster, Mr. J. Browniiig, reported that the primary department roll was 245, the average for June being 230. The respective figures in the secondary were 51 and 42. The trustees of the Herbert Smith Trust had donated three cups, valued at £5 ss, £3 3s and £3 3s respectively for the promotion of sport in the district. One was for competition between the Manaia and Opunake schools and the others were for senior and junior cricket competitions among the ten schools centring around Manaia.

The committee resolved to postpone indefinitely the proposal to go in for school baths. The Taranaki Education Board adv' ed that it had adopted the architect’s report concerning the school drainage system. The architect was unable to recommend expenditure on 18 chains of drain along a public road as asked for by the committee and suggest that if the town board would carry the pipes a long the second road below the school the sewerage would then be approximately only nine chains from the school and probably some arrangement could be made to connect.

The Director of Dental Hygiene advised that dental clinic committees would be required to contribute £3O for each dental officer, this sum to coyer the cost of drugs and material supplied. This would be in addition to the outlay for which committee had been responsible in the past, and clinic committees were authorised to make an annual charge not exceeding 5s for each child. Manaia’s share would be £ll per annumIt was reported that the school tournament on June 3 had been very successful and the committee extended congratulations to the Manaia team, which won the secondary department basketball competition. Mr. Parry urged that the committee go into the question of framing a budget that would keep expenditure within income.

The treasurer said that the school received £36 per quarter from the Education Board for running the school. The chairman considered that a saving might be effected by keeping down expenditure for incidentals.